Cline alternatives in 2026: 7 coding agents to use instead

Disclosure: Enjoy is our product, and it runs Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode. We checked every option below against its maker’s own pages on November 12, 2026, and we say where another option is the better pick, Cline included.

Cline alternatives compared

Cline calls itself “The open source coding agent in your IDE, terminal, & desktop!” It’s free, under Apache 2.0, with 72,000 stars on GitHub, and its docs say it “works across all major editors,” naming VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, JetBrains, Antigravity, Zed and Neovim, with a CLI and a desktop app in beta. Roo Code, which began as a Cline fork, shut down on May 15, 2026, so its users face the same choice. These are the agents people weigh instead, side by side.

Option	Best for	Price, checked November 12, 2026	Runs in	Models
Cline	Approving every step, with any model	Free for individuals; models at cost or with your own keys; ClinePass $9.99 a month	VS Code, Cursor, JetBrains, Zed and other editors; a CLI; a desktop app in beta	Any provider’s key; Claude and ChatGPT plans through Claude Code and Codex; open-weight models on ClinePass
Kilo Code	The closest swap, open source	Free; models at provider rates; Kilo Pass from $19 a month	VS Code, JetBrains, a CLI; a desktop app in beta	500+ models, your own keys, or a ChatGPT plan
Zoo Code	Carrying on with Roo Code	Free; you pay for the models	VS Code	Claude, GPT, Gemini, Kimi, GLM, Grok, MiniMax and others
GitHub Copilot	Claude, GPT and Gemini on one plan	Free; Pro $10 a month; Pro+ $39; Max $100	VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Xcode, Eclipse	Claude, GPT and Gemini; Opus 5.5 and GPT-6.1 Sol from Pro+
Claude Code	The Claude plan you already pay for	Claude Pro $20 a month, or $17 billed yearly; Max $100; Ultra $200	VS Code, Cursor and other forks, JetBrains IDEs, a terminal	Anthropic’s Claude models
Codex	The ChatGPT plan you already pay for	ChatGPT Plus $20 a month; Pro $100, $200 or $500; or an API key	VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, JetBrains IDEs, Xcode	OpenAI’s models
OpenCode	Any model, local ones included, outside the editor	Free; Go $10 a month; Go Plus $40	A terminal; a desktop app for Mac, Windows and Linux	200+ providers, ChatGPT and Copilot plans, local models
Enjoy	Claude Code, Codex and others in one app, on your plans	A monthly subscription, free for 7 days, with your phone and one computer (pricing)	Mac, Windows, Linux	Claude Code, Codex, Grok Build, Antigravity, Muse Code, OpenCode

Prices are each maker’s US list prices per month, before tax. The free agents run on your own plans and API keys, which those companies bill for separately.

Why people look for a Cline alternative

Cline itself costs nothing, but four things send people looking, each in Cline’s own words:

• You pay for the models by the token. “Cline is free for individual developers. Pay only for AI inference on a usage basis,” says its pricing. ClinePass, “$9.99/month,” is a flat price for open-weight models such as Kimi K3.1 Pro, GLM 5.3 and Qwen3.8 Max, per its model list, not for Claude or GPT.
• Your plan comes through another tool, with limits. Its Claude Code provider “Uses your Claude subscription limits instead of API token billing,” but “Responses may not stream token-by-token,” and “Image uploads and prompt caching are limited in this mode.”
• It asks before everything. “Every action requires your explicit approval,” say its docs. Auto approve and “YOLO mode” exist, but Cline recommends you “Leave edits, commands, browser, and MCP off until you have a specific reason.”
• JetBrains is listed under Enterprise. Its pricing page puts the “JetBrains Extension” in its Enterprise plan, at a “Custom” price, though the plugin is free to install from JetBrains Marketplace.

And if you came from Roo Code, you’re moving anyway. Its repository says “The Roo Code Extension was shut down on May 15th,” and it’s archived.

Kilo Code

Best for: the closest swap, an open-source agent in VS Code, JetBrains and a terminal, with any model.

Kilo is “The open source coding agent for building with AI in VS Code, JetBrains, or the CLI,” under the MIT license, with 28,000 stars on GitHub. “We started Kilo as a Roo fork in 2025,” says its migration guide, and its VS Code extension has since been “rebuilt on OpenCode server.” Kilo’s site says it “has been acquired by Anaconda,” which announced the deal in July 2026. You bring your own keys, use Kilo’s gateway, or sign in with ChatGPT: “Sign in with ChatGPT plan usage is available on the ChatGPT Go, Plus, and Pro plans.”

Price: Kilo’s pricing starts “Free & Open Source,” and “Usage is billed separately.” Its gateway offers “500+ models across 60+ providers” and says “Pay exact provider rates with no markup.” Kilo Pass, a monthly subscription to credits, is Starter at $19 a month for “Up to $26.60/mo in credits,” Pro at $49 and Expert at $199. Teams is $15 a user a month.

Watch for: it trusts the agent more than Cline does. “Most tools default to "*": "allow" for a smooth out-of-the-box experience,” says its permissions page, and only the JetBrains plugin asks before file edits by default, so set rules if you want Cline’s approvals back. Buying credits carries a 5% “Credit purchase processing fee” on every plan. And on a ChatGPT plan, “When you reach your ChatGPT usage limit, the request stops with an error.”

Zoo Code

Best for: Roo Code users who want its modes back, maintained.

“Zoo Code continues development of this project after the Roo team wound down active Roo Code work to focus on Roomote,” says its GitHub, and its site says it’s “built on Roo Code’s foundation: same features, same settings, same license.” That includes Roo’s Code, Architect, Ask and Debug modes, and “Custom Modes: build specialized modes for your team or workflow.” It’s under Apache 2.0, installs from the VS Code Marketplace, and its latest release, 3.96.0, came out in November. It supports “Claude, GPT, Gemini, Kimi, GLM, Grok, MiniMax, and other model families,” through providers such as OpenCode Go and its own Zoo Gateway.

Price: free to install. Zoo Code lists no price of its own; the providers you connect bill for their models.

Watch for: it’s young and small. Its site calls it “Community-maintained,” its repository dates from April 2026, and it has 2,100 stars to Cline’s 72,000.

GitHub Copilot

Best for: Claude, GPT and Gemini on one flat plan, inside VS Code or JetBrains IDEs.

Copilot’s agent mode “is available in Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Xcode, and Eclipse.” In VS Code, “An agent uses a model and tools to find relevant code, make changes, and run checks,” and VS Code’s docs say “You can choose models from multiple providers and work with the Copilot, Claude, or Codex agent harness, using a supported account or your own API key.”

Price: Copilot Free costs nothing. Pro is “$10 USD per month (free for some users),” with 1,500 AI credits a month and models including Claude Sonnet 5.5 and GPT-6.1 Terra. Pro+, at $39 with 7,000 credits, and Max, at $100 with 20,000, add Claude Opus 5.5, GPT-6.1 Sol, and Gemini 4 Argon and Carbon, per its plans page.

Watch for: it’s still billed by the token, in credits. “Each token is priced based on the model used,” says its billing page, at “1 AI credit = $0.01 USD,” and in agent mode “each prompt you enter consumes GitHub AI Credits.” “On Copilot Free and Copilot Student plans, access to models is available through auto model selection only.” VS Code’s own bring-your-own-key setup works “without signing into a GitHub account and without a Copilot plan” in its Local harness, but “The Local harness is deprecated and will be removed in February 2027.”

Claude Code

Best for: the Claude plan you already pay for, in VS Code or a JetBrains IDE.

“The VS Code extension provides a native graphical interface for Claude Code, integrated directly into your IDE,” say Anthropic’s docs. It installs in Cursor too, and in “forks like Devin Desktop or Kiro,” and JetBrains IDEs get a dedicated plugin that uses the Claude Code CLI. It works with “any paid Claude subscription (Pro, Max, Ultra, Team, or Enterprise) or a Claude Console account,” and “no API key is required.” If you use Cline’s Claude Code provider today, this is the same plan in Anthropic’s own extension.

Price: Claude’s pricing puts Pro at $20 a month, or $17 a month billed yearly; Max at $100, for “5x Pro usage”; and Ultra at $200, for “10x Pro usage.”

Watch for: it runs Claude only, and “Pro and Max plans have a five-hour session limit and a weekly limit,” says Anthropic’s help center. “These limits are shared across Claude and Claude Code, meaning all activity in both tools counts against the same limits.” Verified Ultra accounts don’t have the five-hour limit.

Codex

Best for: the ChatGPT plan you already pay for, in VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf or JetBrains.

“VS Code and compatible editors use the Codex extension; Xcode and JetBrains IDEs provide their own integrations,” say OpenAI’s docs, which link VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Xcode and JetBrains IDEs. In JetBrains, you “open AI Chat and select Codex.”

Price: Codex’s pricing gives ChatGPT Plus, at $20 a month, “Codex on the web, in the CLI, in the IDE extension, and on iOS.” Pro is “Plans at $100, $200, or $500 USD per month,” and “Pro plans currently have no five-hour limit.” With an API key, you “Pay for Codex usage based on API pricing.”

Watch for: the IDE extension starts at Plus. Free, and Go at $8, get “GPT-6 Luna at Standard speed in the desktop app, subject to rollout.” OpenAI’s usage estimates “are not fixed message limits,” and “Weekly limits may also apply.” A ChatGPT plan pays for OpenAI’s models only.

OpenCode

Best for: any model, local ones included, in a terminal or desktop app beside your editor.

“OpenCode is an open source coding agent. Use it in the desktop app, in the terminal, on your phone or from your own code with the SDK,” says its site. It’s under the MIT license, with 226,000 stars on GitHub, and it offers “200+ LLM providers through Models.dev, including local models.” You can “Log in with ChatGPT Plus or Pro or GitHub Copilot,” and its providers page says “Use a ChatGPT Plus or Pro plan instead of an OpenAI API key.”

Price: free. OpenCode Go, its own subscription to models, is $10 a month, and Go Plus $40. Other providers bill at their own prices.

Watch for: it’s the opposite of Cline on approvals. “Every agent, including custom agents, starts with this ordered base policy,” says its permissions page, and the policy’s first rule allows every action; only reading .env files asks first. Rules with an ask effect bring the prompts back. And its docs describe “a terminal-based interface, desktop app, or web app,” not a panel inside your editor.

Enjoy

Best for: Claude Code and Codex on the plans you already pay for, beside other labs’ agents, in one app.

Enjoy is a desktop app for Mac, Windows and Linux that runs Claude Code, Codex, Grok Build, Antigravity, Muse Code and OpenCode, on the AI plans you already have. What it adds for someone leaving Cline:

• Plans, not tokens. Claude Code runs signed in to your Claude plan and Codex to your ChatGPT plan, so a long task spends their usage instead of API credits. OpenCode covers your API keys, free models and local ones.
• Approvals, when you want them. Each agent’s permission modes decide what it may do on its own. “When an action needs approval, the conversation shows an approval card, and the agent waits until you answer,” and Codex’s card lists each file “it will create, edit, move or delete, with the changes.”
• One conversation, any agent. Switch agents at any point: “The new agent gets the conversation so far, including replies from other agents, before it works on your message.”
• A way through limits. When an agent runs out, Enjoy switches to another of your accounts with usage left, or waits for the reset and carries on.
• Several tasks at once. Each conversation runs its own agent, in a worktree if you like, and you can follow them from your phone.

Price: Enjoy is one monthly subscription, and the first seven days are free, with a card to start. It includes your phone, any browser and one computer; each other computer costs extra each month, and each teammate you invite needs a subscription of their own. See pricing.

Watch for: Enjoy isn’t an extension for VS Code or JetBrains: agents work in Enjoy’s own window, with its own file editor. It doesn’t make API keys cheaper or add one lab’s models to another lab’s plan, and it runs six agents, so Cline, Kilo Code, Zoo Code and Copilot aren’t among them. Scheduled workflows run only while your computer is awake with Enjoy open. Enjoy isn’t open source, and it’s a monthly subscription on top of your AI plans once the free week ends.

When to stay with Cline

Stay if you like approving each step inside your editor, or if you want to pick any model, local ones included, with nothing to pay but the models. Cline doesn’t tie you to its own billing: you can bring keys, use your Claude plan through its Claude Code provider, or use its OpenAI Codex provider to “Sign in with OpenAI account, using OAI subscriptions (no key management).” ClinePass gives open-weight models a flat $9.99 a month.

If you came from Roo Code, Cline is the extension Roo’s own team pointed to: its farewell post said “If you want a model-agnostic open-source extension, we recommend Cline.” Move if you want Claude or GPT on your plan in its maker’s own extension, fewer prompts by default, or several labs’ agents in one place.

How we compared

We read each maker’s homepage, pricing, docs and GitHub repository on November 12, 2026, and every page is linked below. Roo Code’s farewell post now redirects to Roomote, so we read the Internet Archive’s copy. Star counts come from GitHub that day. We quote each maker’s own words for its limits, and we leave out what a maker hasn’t documented. Agents and plans change often, so we recheck this guide against its sources at least once a month, and the date at the foot of the page says when we last did.