Alternatives to GitHub Copilot
An AI coding assistant from GitHub that suggests code and carries out coding tasks in editors and terminals. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
GitHub Copilot
An AI coding assistant from GitHub that suggests code and carries out coding tasks in editors and terminals.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as GitHub Copilot.
Cursor
An AI code editor built on VS Code, with coding agents that plan and carry out tasks.
Cursor is a full AI code editor built on VS Code with multi-file agents and codebase indexing, rather than an integration added to an existing editor.
Replit
A browser-based AI app builder and coding workspace for creating and publishing apps and websites.
Replit moves coding into a browser workspace that builds and publishes apps, suited to little coding, with projects hosted on Replit's platform instead of GitHub.
bolt.new
A browser-based AI builder that creates websites, apps and prototypes from written prompts.
bolt.new generates full-stack apps from prompts in the browser and can start from GitHub, but works as an app builder rather than an in-editor assistant.
Also worth comparing
These listings name GitHub Copilot as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
Amazon Q Developer
AWS AI coding assistant that writes, debugs and refactors code in your IDE.
GitHub Copilot works in Visual Studio Code, a macOS app and a CLI with GitHub integration instead of AWS services, and heavier use requires a paid plan.
Codex CLI
OpenAI's open source coding agent that runs in your terminal.
GitHub Copilot offers a CLI plus editor integration and a macOS app, but it is closed source, needs a GitHub account and sends code to GitHub's hosted service.
Cody Enterprise
Enterprise AI coding assistant grounded in Sourcegraph's codebase context.
GitHub Copilot has a free tier and ties into GitHub repositories instead of requiring a Sourcegraph deployment, but code is processed on GitHub's hosted service.
Gemini CLI
Google's open source AI agent for the terminal, powered by Gemini.
GitHub Copilot offers a CLI plus editor integration tied to GitHub repositories, is closed source, and needs a GitHub account with paid plans for heavier use.
OpenHands
Self-hosted control centre for running coding agents against your projects.
GitHub Copilot is a closed-source hosted assistant with editor, macOS app and CLI agents, requiring a GitHub account and paid plans for heavier use.
Windsurf Plugins
AI autocomplete and chat plugins for JetBrains, VS Code and other editors.
GitHub Copilot is actively developed, works in Visual Studio Code, a macOS app and a CLI, and ties into GitHub repositories, but it requires a GitHub account.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Qodo
An AI code review service that checks pull requests and IDE changes against full codebase context.
v0
An AI assistant from Vercel that generates full-stack web apps from text prompts and publishes them.
Claude
Anthropic's AI assistant for writing, analysis and coding, with a large context window.
ChatGPT
OpenAI's AI assistant for conversation, writing, coding, analysis and image creation.
DeepSeek
A web chat assistant from Chinese developer DeepSeek, known for strong coding ability.
Linear
A keyboard-first issue tracker and product planning tool for software teams, with built-in AI agents.
