Cline vs Continue
A side-by-side comparison of capabilities, autonomy, integrations, and pricing to help you choose.
Short answer: choose Cline if you want open-source autonomous coding agent for vs code and jetbrains (Supervised agent, freemium); choose Continue if you want open-source ai code assistant and agent for vs code and jetbrains (Supervised agent, freemium).
| Cline | Continue | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Open-source autonomous coding agent for VS Code and JetBrains | Open-source AI code assistant and agent for VS Code and JetBrains |
| Type | agent | agent |
| Autonomy | Supervised agent | Supervised agent |
| Pricing | freemium · Free (open source); Teams reported at $20/mo | freemium · Free (open source); Hub from $10/mo (reported) |
| Best for | developers, mid-market, enterprise | developers, mid-market, enterprise |
| Deployment | self-hosted, saas | self-hosted, saas |
| Modalities | text, code, browser | text, code |
| Models | model-agnostic | model-agnostic |
| Protocols | mcp, function-calling, rest-api | mcp, function-calling, rest-api |
| Integrations | VS Code, JetBrains, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, AWS Bedrock | VS Code, JetBrains, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, Ollama |
| Capabilities | 4 documented | 4 documented |
Cline
- +Open source (Apache-2.0) with no inference markup; bring your own model keys
- +Plan/Act mode plus per-step approval makes autonomy controllable
- +MCP support, browser control, and adoption reported at large enterprises
- -Auto-approve can run consequential commands; oversight still recommended
- -Costs scale with the model you bring; heavy agentic runs can get expensive
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?
Cline is open-source autonomous coding agent for vs code and jetbrains, best for developers, mid-market, enterprise. 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 Cline and Continue profiles. Open either profile to review its evidence and last-reviewed date.