The toolbox
80 tools worth knowing about if you build with AI. No affiliate links, no paid placement, and no prices quoted β tiers change monthly and a stale price helps nobody.
Cursor
freemiumAI-first code editor built on VS Code, with inline editing, codebase-aware chat and an agent mode.
Best for: Day-to-day AI-assisted editing
Windsurf
freemiumAI editor with an agentic workflow that tracks your actions across files and applies multi-step changes.
Best for: Flow-based multi-file edits
GitHub Copilot
freemiumGitHub's assistant offering inline completions, chat and a coding agent across major editors and GitHub itself.
Best for: Completions across many editors
Visual Studio Code
freeMicrosoft's open-source editor, the base for most AI coding extensions and forks.
Best for: The default extensible editor
Zed
open-sourceHigh-performance collaborative editor written in Rust, with a built-in agent panel and multi-model support.
Best for: Speed-focused editing with agents
Kiro
freemiumAWS agentic IDE that turns prompts into specifications, tasks and code with hooks for repeatable workflows.
Best for: Spec-driven development
Continue
open-sourceOpen-source assistant for VS Code and JetBrains that lets you configure your own models, rules and context providers.
Best for: Fully configurable assistant
Tabnine
freemiumCode completion and chat assistant with self-hosted and privacy-focused deployment options for teams.
Best for: Privacy-conscious teams
JetBrains AI Assistant
freemiumAI features integrated across JetBrains IDEs, including chat, code generation and refactoring support.
Best for: IntelliJ and PyCharm users