Best GitHub Copilot Alternatives in 2026
Looking for alternatives to GitHub Copilot? Here are the top options compared.
Why Consider GitHub Copilot Alternatives?
- β οΈMonthly cost
- β οΈCan suggest incorrect code
- β οΈPrivacy concerns
- β οΈRequires good prompting
Top 8 Alternatives to GitHub Copilot
ChatGPT
Versatile AI assistant for various tasks.
β Pros
- β’ Versatile
- β’ Great for tasks
- β’ Large context
β Cons
- β’ Knowledge cutoff
- β’ No real-time data
Claude
Claude by Anthropic is known for its thoughtful, nuanced responses and strong performance on complex reasoning tasks. It emphasizes safety and has an exceptionally large context window.
β Pros
- β’ Excellent at nuanced, thoughtful responses
- β’ Massive 200K context window
- β’ Strong reasoning capabilities
β Cons
- β’ Smaller plugin ecosystem
- β’ No native image generation
- β’ Sometimes overly cautious
Google Gemini
Google Gemini (formerly Bard) is Google's AI assistant powered by their Gemini model. It offers multimodal capabilities and integrates with Google services.
β Pros
- β’ Free access to powerful model
- β’ Google integration
- β’ Multimodal capabilities
β Cons
- β’ Sometimes inaccurate
- β’ Less coding focused
- β’ Privacy concerns
Perplexity
AI search engine with real-time answers.
β Pros
- β’ Real-time data
- β’ Sources cited
- β’ Focused answers
β Cons
- β’ Less conversational
- β’ Simpler chat
Cursor
AI-first code editor built for pair programming with AI. Fork of VS Code with native AI features.
β Pros
- β’ Native AI integration
- β’ Codebase-aware
- β’ VS Code familiar
β Cons
- β’ New product
- β’ Resource heavy
- β’ Subscription for full features
Windsurf
AI-powered IDE by Codeium with Cascade for agentic coding assistance.
β Pros
- β’ Agentic AI (Cascade)
- β’ Great free tier
- β’ Fast completions
β Cons
- β’ Newer than competitors
- β’ Smaller community
- β’ Less extensions
v0 by Vercel
AI-powered UI generation tool that creates React components from text descriptions.
β Pros
- β’ Generates production code
- β’ shadcn/ui integration
- β’ Iterative refinement
β Cons
- β’ Limited free generations
- β’ React/Next.js only
- β’ May need manual tweaks
Bolt.new
AI-powered full-stack app builder that creates and deploys apps from prompts.
β Pros
- β’ Full-stack generation
- β’ Instant deployment
- β’ Real-time preview
β Cons
- β’ Token limits
- β’ Complex apps need iteration
- β’ Still in development
Quick Comparison
| Tool | Price | Free Tier | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot | $10/month | β | AI Tools |
| ChatGPT | Free / $20/month | β | AI Assistant |
| Claude | Free / $20/month | β | AI Tools |
| Google Gemini | Free / Gemini Advanced $19.99/month | β | AI Tools |
| Perplexity | Free / $20/month | β | AI Search |
| Cursor | Free / $20/month | β | AI Tools |
| Windsurf | Free / $15/month | β | AI Tools |
| v0 by Vercel | Free / $20/month | β | AI Tools |
| Bolt.new | Free / $20/month | β | AI Tools |