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.