Claude Code Alternatives?

6•pozzy•1mo ago

For anyone that has use Claude Code, what is a powerful enough alternative? I've been getting some amazing results with it, but the cost quickly adds up. I'd like to test something like the Gemini 2.5 Flash API which is significantly cheaper.

Does Aider or RooCode offer comparative performance?

I'm not looking for something that's simply cheaper. I want to know if it's possible to get the same level of quality at a cheaper price. I know Claude Code is tightly integrated with its own model which is part of the reason it performs so well.

Comments

sibeliuss•1mo ago

OpenAI just released codex. Oh my it is slow

owebmaster•1mo ago

OpenAI products are the living proof LLMs can't code, even with unlimited budget

muzani•1mo ago

Cursor is the popular one now for good reason. It does have gemini-2.5-flash-exp, along with all the claudes, openAI, deepseek, and their own free ones.

It comes down to about $16/month, which includes limited use of claude sonnet and gemini 2.5 pro. Which feels extremely bloody cheap to me as my usage for both of these would far exceed that cost. You can give it your own API key instead of using their subscription model as well.

vismit2000•1mo ago

Google firebase studio

chewz•1mo ago

Try SDGLBL/mcp-claude-code or ezyang/codemcp. They are both very good (better then Claude Code in my opinion).

Using aider is another option. Or Assistant in Zed. - diferent approaches but both very effective.

https://github.com/SDGLBL/mcp-claude-code

https://github.com/ezyang/codemcp

Imanari•1mo ago

aider.chat

It is less autonomous but I consider it a feature, it's more of a precision tool.