Claude Code Alternatives?
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.
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.
OpenAI just released codex. Oh my it is slow
Google firebase studio
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