AI coding assistants · #5 of 28 · ↑ Windsurf · ↓ OpenAI Codex
Aider
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Aider lands an overall score of 22 out of 100, showing up in 27 of 70 answers across AI assistants. The picture varies a lot by assistant: Claude rates it 45, while ChatGPT and Gemini put it much lower at 11 and 12. Aider shows up most for local-privacy setups, terminal use, whole-codebase work and open-source questions, each named in 3 of 3 or 3 of 4 answers, plus 2 of 4 for free options. It's never named for beginner coding, pull-request review, VS Code, or mobile app building questions.
this is mine claim it, free, forever. We also check whether ChatGPT and Claude can read aider.chat.
Who's talking about you
| assistant | score | named in, this week | usual spot, this week |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 11 | 20% of answers | #6.5 |
| Claude | 45 | 80% of answers | #6.3 |
| Gemini | 12 | 20% of answers | #5.5 |
| Perplexity | 15 | 25% of answers | #5.4 |
Questions you win
| question | named in | best spot |
|---|---|---|
| What's the best open-source AI coding assistant? | 3 of 3 | #1 |
| What's the best AI coding assistant that works in the terminal? | 3 of 3 | #2 |
| What's the best AI coding assistant I can run locally for privacy? | 3 of 3 | #3 |
| What are the best AI coding agents that can work across a whole codebase? | 3 of 4 | #4 |
| Which AI coding assistant is best for professional developers? | 2 of 4 | #5 |
| What are the best AI coding assistants? | 2 of 4 | #7 |
| What are the best free AI coding assistants? | 2 of 4 | #9 |
| Which AI coding tool is best for writing tests? | 1 of 3 | #5 |
| Which AI coding assistant is best for large codebases? | 1 of 3 | #6 |
| What's the best AI tool for writing and fixing React and Next.js code? | 1 of 3 | #11 |
| What's the best AI coding assistant for a solo developer building a SaaS? | 1 of 4 | #2 |
| Which AI coding tool writes the most reliable code? | 1 of 4 | #3 |
| What are the top AI coding assistants in 2026? | 1 of 4 | #4 |
| What's the best AI coding assistant for Python? | 1 of 4 | #7 |
| What's the best AI code editor right now? | 1 of 4 | #11 |
| Which AI coding assistant gives the best value for the money? | 1 of 4 | #13 |
Questions you lose
| question | who got named instead |
|---|---|
| What's the best AI coding assistant for beginners learning to code? | GitHub Copilot |
| What's the best AI tool to review pull requests automatically? | CodeRabbit, Greptile, GitHub Copilot |
| What's the best AI coding assistant for VS Code? | GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Cline |
| What's the best AI coding assistant for building mobile apps? | Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Claude Code |
In their words
- ChatGPT“| Aider | Best Git-native terminal pair programmer | Excellent if you like reviewing diffs/commits; maps your codebase, auto-commits changes, can run lint/tests.”
- Claude“Agentic tools that can run your test suite — Claude Code, Cursor (agent mode), Codex CLI, Cline, Aider.”
- Gemini“Aider”
Closest rivals
- Aider vs OpenAI Codex21
- Aider vs Windsurf25
- Aider vs Cline18
- Aider vs Continue16
- Aider vs Amazon Q Developer12
All Aider alternatives · Full AI coding assistants leaderboard · Sources