OpenCode vs Cline vs Aider
Three AI coding tools you can obtain yourself: license, surface, and who pays for the model. Star counts stay on each tool page and are not compared here.
- No overall score
- No winner
- Column order is reading order
Facts side by side
License
- OpenCode
- MIT, repository anomalyco/opencode.
- Cline
- Apache-2.0, repository cline/cline.
- Aider
- Apache-2.0, repository Aider-AI/aider.
Surface
- OpenCode
- Terminal or a companion UI.
- Cline
- IDE extension, CLI, or SDK.
- Aider
- Pair programming in the terminal.
Model cost
- OpenCode
- The software is free to obtain. Model API calls are billed by the model provider.
- Cline
- The software is free to obtain. You connect and pay for your own model.
- Aider
- The software is free to obtain. You bring your own model.
Summary
All three are open-source coding tools under MIT or Apache-2.0. They are not tied to one vendor subscription, and model charges are separate. Repository stars change; use the date on each tool page. They are not a quality ranking.
Tool records and official sources
These dates belong to each tool’s catalog source-check record. Confirm current features, allowances, and costs on the official pages. A source check is not hands-on testing or a security audit.
Tools in this comparison
Stars are hidden here. Attention is not a comparison dimension; each tool page still shows its stars.
OpenCode
anomalycoCoding agents
An open-source coding agent. The repository license is MIT, and its star count is high in this catalog.
FreeFeaturedMITCline
ClineCoding agents
A coding agent as an IDE extension, CLI, or SDK. Apache-2.0.
FreeApache-2.0Aider
AiderCoding agents
Pair programming in the terminal. The repository license is Apache-2.0.
FreeApache-2.0