Best Cursor Alternatives in 2026: AI Code Editors, Copilot Alternatives and Coding Agents

For most developers, the best Cursor alternatives are Zed if you want a new open-source editor with built-in AI, Cline or Kilo Code if you want to keep VS Code or JetBrains and bring your own model keys, and OpenCode if you work in the terminal.

The same list covers GitHub Copilot and Claude Code alternatives. The first eight picks are editors and IDE assistants, and the last five are terminal agents. Model quality changes with every release, so this guide describes what each tool is and who it suits rather than which model is best.

Why people look for Cursor alternatives

Cursor and GitHub Copilot are the best-known AI coding tools. Developers still compare them with other options for practical reasons.

• Closed source, hosted services. Enlisted lists both as proprietary with no self-hosted version, so your code context goes through their services and models.
• The editor is part of the deal. Cursor is an AI-first desktop editor, so using it means switching editors. Extensions and terminal agents work inside the setup you already have.
• Plans and usage. Both have a free plan and several paid tiers, and their pricing pages are the place to check current limits. Open-source agents move the cost to whichever model provider you connect.
• Model and key choice. Tools such as Cline and OpenCode work with your own keys, providers or local models, so you are not tied to one vendor's model lineup.
• Terminal workflows. Many developers want an agent that works from the shell, in scripts and in CI, not only inside an editor window.

How we picked

Each tool reads your code, answers questions and edits files, which is the core of both Cursor and Copilot. Open-source entries needed recent GitHub activity, so one popular project whose repository is now read-only appears only in the notes below, and licences are quoted as Enlisted lists them. The method is covered in how Enlisted ranks tools.

A note on the table: its Self-host column is mostly No here because editors and terminal agents run on your own machine rather than as server software. What matters for privacy is which model provider you connect, which the picks below explain.

1. Zed: best open-source code editor with built-in AI

Zed is a code editor built for speed and for editing together with other people, written in Rust by the team behind Atom and Tree-sitter, for macOS, Linux and Windows. Its site lists agentic editing, edit prediction and an inline assistant, and says you can connect external agents such as Claude Agent, Codex or OpenCode and add MCP servers.

The code is open source, mostly GPL-3.0-or-later with some Apache-2.0 components according to its repository, and Enlisted lists a free personal plan alongside paid ones. It is a separate editor rather than an extension, built for speed according to its repository.

• Best for: developers who want a fast, open-source editor with AI features and collaborative editing.
• Watch out for: switching editors means relearning shortcuts and extensions, and you should check which AI features the free plan includes.

2. Cline: best open-source coding agent for VS Code and JetBrains

Cline is an open-source coding agent that works in your IDE, terminal and desktop, with a VS Code extension, a JetBrains plugin (early access, per its site), a CLI, a desktop app and an SDK. It can edit across a project, create files and run commands, and in the editor it asks for your approval before using tools.

Its site describes a bring-your-own-key approach, with your own API keys, endpoint or model weights, and a Plan and Act mode that separates strategy from execution. The CLI also has a headless mode for CI and scripting, and the code is Apache-2.0.

• Best for: developers who want Cursor-style agent edits inside VS Code or JetBrains and want to choose and pay their model provider directly.
• Watch out for: you manage keys and model costs yourself, and agents that run commands need careful approval settings.

3. Kilo Code: best open-source agent with a huge model choice

Kilo Code is an open-source AI coding agent for VS Code, JetBrains IDEs and the command line, released under MIT. Its README says you can choose from hundreds of models, switch between them mid-task and pay the model provider's rate with no markup.

Beyond the local extensions, it offers a Cloud Agent that runs from the web and automated AI code reviews for pull requests. Enlisted lists a free open-source plan alongside Teams and Enterprise tiers.

• Best for: people who want to compare many models inside one agent and keep costs close to provider rates.
• Watch out for: it overlaps heavily with Cline, so try both against your own workflow before committing.

4. JetBrains AI Assistant: best for people who live in JetBrains IDEs

JetBrains AI Assistant is the AI layer built into JetBrains IDEs, offering chat, code assistance and agent-based workflows without leaving the editor. According to the vendor, you can use a JetBrains AI subscription or connect your own models and agents.

It is the least disruptive Copilot alternative if IntelliJ, PyCharm or WebStorm is already your daily tool. Enlisted lists it as paid with no free plan, so confirm current options on the vendor's page.

• Best for: Java, Kotlin, Python and web developers who want AI inside the IDE they already use.
• Watch out for: it only works in JetBrains products and is closed source.

5. Google Antigravity: best agent-first environment built around Gemini

Google Antigravity is an agent-first development platform from Google, built around Gemini models, with a desktop app, a command-line tool, an IDE, extensions and an SDK. Its command center is designed for managing several local agents in parallel and grouping their conversations into projects.

Enlisted lists a free individual plan, with paid Google AI tiers above it. It is aimed at developers who want to delegate tasks to several agents at once.

• Best for: developers who prefer to hand off work to parallel agents and review the results.
• Watch out for: closed source and built around Google's Gemini models, so check which other models it supports before committing.

6. Kiro: best for spec-driven development

Kiro is an AI development tool from AWS built around spec-driven development: it turns a request into requirements, a design and a sequence of tasks, then implements them with parallel agents running locally or in the cloud. It also applies property-based tests to check behavior across many inputs.

It has a CLI for terminal use and, per Enlisted, a free plan alongside paid tiers. It suits teams that want planning and traceability, not only fast completions.

• Best for: features where you want written requirements and tests before code.
• Watch out for: the spec workflow adds structure, which suits larger features more than one-line fixes. It is closed source.

7. Amazon Q Developer: best free-tier Copilot alternative for AWS work

Amazon Q Developer is an AWS AI assistant that writes, debugs and refactors code in the IDE and helps with questions about AWS services and cloud operations. It also includes tools for upgrading or transforming older code.

Enlisted lists both a free tier and a Pro tier. It is the natural choice when your day involves AWS resources, since it can answer questions about them as well as code.

• Best for: developers and teams working heavily on AWS.
• Watch out for: its strengths sit in the AWS ecosystem, and it is closed source and hosted.

8. Tabby: best self-hosted alternative to GitHub Copilot

Tabby is a self-hosted AI coding assistant, positioned as an on-premises, open-source alternative to GitHub Copilot. It is self-contained, needs no separate database or cloud service, is designed to run on consumer-grade GPUs and exposes an OpenAPI interface for integrations.

It adds code completion, a chat panel, an Answer Engine and the option to index your repositories and documentation as context. A VS Code extension and LDAP authentication are covered in its updates. Enlisted lists its licence as Other.

• Best for: teams that must keep source code on their own hardware.
• Watch out for: you run the server and the GPU, and its last GitHub commit is not as recent as the most active projects here, so check the repository's activity before adopting it.

9. Claude Code: best terminal-first agent from a model vendor

Claude Code is Anthropic's coding agent that reads a project's codebase, edits files, runs commands and works through tasks while the developer reviews changes. It runs in the terminal, in VS Code and JetBrains, on the web, on iOS and Android, and through GitHub and Slack.

It is a closed-source hosted tool, and Enlisted lists paid plans only, with no free plan. It is the tool the terminal agents below are most often compared with.

• Best for: developers who want an agent they can steer across terminal, IDE and chat surfaces.
• Watch out for: no free plan and no self-hosted version, and it is built around Anthropic's models.

10. OpenCode: best open-source terminal agent with many providers

OpenCode is an open-source coding agent for the terminal, released under MIT, with a desktop app and an IDE extension. Its site says it supports 75 or more providers through Models.dev, including local models, so you can connect your own keys.

It ships with two built-in agents: a build agent with full development access, and a read-only plan agent that denies file edits by default and asks before running shell commands. That makes it handy for exploring an unfamiliar codebase safely.

• Best for: terminal users who want an open-source Claude Code-style agent that works with many models.
• Watch out for: the desktop app is listed in beta, and the vendor sells optional paid model access, so check which setup you are using.

11. Codex CLI: best open-source terminal agent for ChatGPT plan users

Codex CLI is OpenAI's open-source coding agent that runs locally in your terminal, written in Rust and released under Apache-2.0. You can sign in with a ChatGPT plan or authenticate with an API key, then ask it to read, explain and change the code in your project.

It installs through scripts, package managers or binaries on GitHub Releases for Mac, Linux and Windows. A separate closed-source OpenAI Codex product adds cloud tasks and IDE use.

• Best for: developers who already have a ChatGPT plan and want a terminal agent from the same vendor.
• Watch out for: it is built around OpenAI's models and account system.

12. Gemini CLI: best open-source terminal agent with a free tier

Gemini CLI is Google's open-source terminal agent for working with Gemini models from the command line, licensed under Apache-2.0. Built-in tools cover Google Search grounding, file operations, shell commands and web fetching, and MCP lets you add integrations.

The project highlights a free tier when you sign in with a personal Google account, and Enlisted also lists paid Google plans, an AI Studio API key and Vertex AI as options.

• Best for: developers who want to try a terminal agent at no cost and are happy with Gemini models.
• Watch out for: it is tied to Google's models and accounts, and free-tier limits are set by Google.

13. Aider: best git-first terminal pair programmer

Aider is an open-source command-line tool for pair programming with large language models, released under Apache-2.0. It builds a map of your whole codebase, commits each change to git with a descriptive message so you can diff or undo it, and can run linters and tests after edits.

It works with cloud and local models and supports more than 100 programming languages, according to its listing. It is a good fit if you like the terminal and want every AI change in your git history.

• Best for: developers who want small, reviewable, git-tracked AI edits.
• Watch out for: its latest GitHub commit is older than most tools on this list, so check the repository's activity before relying on it.

More Cursor and Copilot alternatives worth a look

• Goose: an open-source, general-purpose agent in Rust with a desktop app, CLI and API that works with many model providers and MCP extensions.
• OpenHands: a self-hosted control center for running coding agents, including OpenHands, Claude Code and Codex, locally, in Docker or in the cloud.
• Open Interpreter: a Rust coding agent forked from Codex CLI and tuned for low-cost open models.
• Trae: ByteDance's AI development environment, which Enlisted lists with a free plan.
• Augment Code: an AI coding platform for large codebases, with a context engine and cloud agents.
• Warp, Devin and Replit: a terminal with agents, an autonomous engineer that opens pull requests, and a browser-based coding platform with an AI agent.
• Visual Studio Code: the open-source editor that Cline and Kilo Code extend.

Windsurf is another AI code editor, but it is not listed on Enlisted yet, so it is not covered here. Continue was an open-source assistant for VS Code and JetBrains, but its repository is now read-only and no longer maintained, so we have not recommended it.

Which Cursor alternative should you choose?

See all Cursor alternatives, GitHub Copilot alternatives and Claude Code alternatives on Enlisted, or browse the developer tools category and AI tools.

Bring your own keys: what it means for cost and privacy

Open-source agents such as Cline, Kilo Code, OpenCode and Aider are free to install, but the model behind them is not free by default. You either pay a model provider for usage, sign in with an existing subscription where the tool supports it, or run a local model.

• Your code goes where the model is. With a hosted provider, the files an agent reads are sent to that provider. With a local model, they stay on your machine.
• Local models trade quality for control. Aider, OpenCode and Cline connect to local models, and Tabby runs on your own GPU. Results depend on the model and the hardware, so start with a small project.
• Approvals matter. Agents that run shell commands should ask first. Cline's approval prompts and OpenCode's read-only plan agent are examples of that design.

If you also want a general chat assistant next to your coding tool, see the guide to ChatGPT alternatives.