Independent · UK · Free weeklyRankings provisional · checked 14 Oct 2026

Use case 01 of 10 · last checked 14 Oct 2026

The best aI coding agents & IDEs tools

Five tools worth your time. Order is provisional until we publish test results. How we'll score them.

  1. 01

    CursorProvisional

    AI-first code editor with agents that plan, edit and run code across your repo.

    Free Hobby plan; Pro $20/mo
  2. 02

    Claude CodeProvisional

    Anthropic's agentic coding tool for the terminal and IDE.

    No free tier; included with Claude Pro $20/mo
  3. 03

    GitHub CopilotProvisional

    GitHub's AI pair programmer with agent mode, code review and a cloud agent.

    Free plan; Pro $10/mo
  4. 04

    Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf)Provisional

    Windsurf's IDE, renamed June 2026, now built around managing many local and cloud agents.

    Plans unchanged from Windsurf (check pricing page)
  5. 05

    OpenAI CodexProvisional

    OpenAI's coding agent for the CLI, IDE and cloud tasks.

    Limited free use in ChatGPT Free; ChatGPT Plus $20/mo

Get the Shortlist every Tuesday.

New releases with a Try / Watch / Skip verdict, ranking changes, and one "best tool for…" pick. Five minutes, free.