Aider vs Continue
A side-by-side comparison of capabilities, autonomy, integrations, and pricing to help you choose.
Short answer: choose Aider if you want open-source ai pair programming in your terminal, backed by git (Supervised agent, free); choose Continue if you want open-source ai code assistant and agent for vs code and jetbrains (Supervised agent, freemium).
| Aider | Continue | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Open-source AI pair programming in your terminal, backed by Git | Open-source AI code assistant and agent for VS Code and JetBrains |
| Type | agent | agent |
| Autonomy | Supervised agent | Supervised agent |
| Pricing | free · Free (open source; pay your own model costs) | freemium · Free (open source); Hub from $10/mo (reported) |
| Best for | developers | developers, mid-market, enterprise |
| Deployment | self-hosted | self-hosted, saas |
| Modalities | text, code | text, code |
| Models | model-agnostic | model-agnostic |
| Protocols | function-calling, rest-api | mcp, function-calling, rest-api |
| Integrations | Git, GitHub, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, DeepSeek | VS Code, JetBrains, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, Ollama |
| Capabilities | 4 documented | 4 documented |
Aider
- +Fully open source (Apache-2.0) and free; you only pay your chosen model provider
- +Git-native: every AI change is a reviewable, revertible commit
- +Model-agnostic with a repo map that scales to larger codebases
- -Terminal-only with no GUI or IDE-native experience for those who want one
- -Runs locally and edits real files, so a human must review every change
Continue
- +Open source and model-agnostic, including fully local models for private coding
- +Covers autocomplete, edit, chat, and agent in one configurable plugin
- +Continue Hub adds team rules, governance, and shareable assistant blocks
- -Acquired by Cursor in 2026 with the original repo reported read-only; standalone future is uncertain
- -Heavily configuration-driven, which adds setup overhead versus turnkey tools
Which should you choose?
Aider is open-source ai pair programming in your terminal, backed by git, best for developers. Continue is open-source ai code assistant and agent for vs code and jetbrains, best for developers, mid-market, enterprise. The right choice depends on the autonomy level you want, your existing integrations, and your budget, all compared above.
This comparison is generated from the sourced Aider and Continue profiles. Open either profile to review its evidence and last-reviewed date.