![[Screenshot 2025-08-19 at 20.16.06.png]] After an entire weekend of hands-on testing 15+ AI coding assistants, building the same real-life application (tax comparison calculator), and documenting every step - here's the comprehensive breakdown to separate the signal from the noise: **🏆 Best Overall: Cline** - 100% open source and free version of Cursor + Windsurf that’s a simple VS Code extension - Truly thoughtful agentic coding with extensive tool use (terminal, computer use, websites, etc) - Wrote the best code with fewer mistakes, better self-healing, but no inline chat **🎨 Best for Non-Technical Users: [Vercel](https://www.linkedin.com/company/vercel/) V0** - Fast, Easy, intuitive UX - Strong community and templates - Component-specific editing via AI is magical **⚡Best for Quick Prototypes: [Anthropic](https://www.linkedin.com/company/anthropicresearch/) Claude 3.5 Sonnet** - Fast & clean responses - Great reasoning & logic clarity - Artifact is great for prototyping, with ability to publish and share [Replit](https://www.linkedin.com/company/repl-it/): Good for full-stack cloud development, but sits in an awkward spot—too complex for beginners, too constrained for advanced users. [StackBlitz](https://www.linkedin.com/company/stackblitz/) [Bolt.new](http://bolt.new/): A standard cloud IDE with AI codegen, but nothing special. [Lovable](https://www.linkedin.com/company/lovable-dev/): Similar to Bolt, but unreliable AI-generated code, hard to toggle/see code. [Cursor](https://www.linkedin.com/company/cursorai/): Great Copilot alternative, but lacks extensive agentic capabilities like Cline. [Codeium](https://www.linkedin.com/company/codeiumdev/) Windsurf: Strong agent mode but agent was sometimes lazy and incomplete. [GitHub](https://www.linkedin.com/company/github/) Copilot: Good for simple inline edits, but lacks full agentic workflow (though an agent mode was recently released). Aider: Terminal & keyboard only. Feels like Vim/Emacs on steroids. Too hardcore. [OpenHands](https://www.linkedin.com/company/openhands/): Open-source and free [Cognition](https://www.linkedin.com/company/cognition-ai-labs/) Devin with strong agentic coding, but SaaS version is unstable. [OpenAI](https://www.linkedin.com/company/openai/) (o3-mini-high): Good logic depth but lacks a coding canvas. [Anthropic](https://www.linkedin.com/company/anthropicresearch/) (Claude 3.5 Sonnet): Fast + clean. Artifact is great for prototypes, but can’t edit code directly inside it. [Google](https://www.linkedin.com/company/google/) Gemini 2: Poor experience—lazy, incomplete code. Generated separate files that I had to manually combine. DeepSeek AI R1: Strong long reasoning chains, but gets a lot of logic wrong. [Tempo (YC S23)](https://www.linkedin.com/company/tempolabs/): Promising PRD → Design → Code → Deploy workflow, but still in early stages. Onlook: Strong for design-first workflows but inconvenient for direct code editing. [Reweb](https://www.linkedin.com/company/reweb-so/): Generates only UI components, not code with logic. **My Final Recommendations:** - For non-technical users: Vercel V0 is the best no-code/low-code option. - For cloud-based development: Try Bolt. - For local AI-powered coding: Cline is free and outperforms Cursor/Codeium. - For rapid prototyping: Claude 3.5 Sonnet is fast and effective. - For designers: Tempo or Onlook provide a strong UI-first workflow.