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Software Engineer

The review is the job

Copilot is what Legal will sign. Cursor is what people defect to. A second chatbot is not a stack.

Price and complexity

Field note

Software engineer · Role 06

GitHub Copilot is the seat you buy when the company needs JetBrains, an audit trail, and a vendor Legal can spell. Cursor is the seat you buy when the job is the repo, not the autocomplete. That split is the market. A chat tab on the side is how juniors paste stack traces. It is not how you ship.

The useful rule is ugly and stable: the model may suggest, an agent may edit, a human still reads the diff. Tests stay. Secrets stay out of the prompt. If your team cannot say where the code went, you do not have a coding assistant. You have a leak.

Skip an “AI for developers” suite, a second knowledge base, and a stand-up bot that files tickets nobody asked for. Measure time-to-reviewed-PR on one service for two weeks. If that number does not move, you bought a toy. Confirm list prices on the vendor page. Copilot vs Cursor is the comparison; the rest is costume.

Accepting a multi-file agent edit without reading the diff is how you hire a confident intern with prod access.

How we read this categoryTab-complete is the demo. The merge is the product. If you cannot explain the diff, it does not ship.

Suggest, then review. If the tool can act, the diff is the control.

Editorial plate for The review is the job

22 tools on this stack

Best for

Same category, grouped by the job. A tool can show up in more than one bucket.

Best for IDE autocomplete

Best for Enterprise policy

Best for Complex branching

Best for Repo-aware edits

Best for Terminal / agents

Best for Self-hosted / cost control

Best for AI agents

Best for Document intelligence

Best for Calendar & tasks

Best for Everyday drafting

Best for Breadth over depth

Best for Cited research

Best for Simple app-to-app

Best for Wiki / workspace

On this stack

Confirm list prices on the vendor page.

Cursor

Repo-aware editor, not a plugin

Freemiumfrom $20/mo
Best for Repo-aware editsBest for Terminal / agents

Cursor is an AI-native VS Code fork. Composer/agent is the point. Review diffs like you would a junior’s PR.

GitHub Copilot

The default IDE autocomplete

Paidfrom $10/mo
Best for IDE autocompleteBest for Enterprise policy

Copilot is the safe org-wide coding seat: IDEs, policy, indemnification story. Cursor still wins on repo-aware edits for many individuals.

Glean

Work graph search across the tools you already pay for

Contact
Best for Document intelligence

Glean is internal search with permissions. Buy it when the wiki is a junk drawer. It is not a public research engine.

Make

Visual automation for branching logic

Freemiumfrom $9/mo
Best for Complex branchingBest for Self-hosted / cost control

Make is the canvas for loops, routers, and cheaper operations. It is the live affiliate on this site because the product actually matches the ops job.

Reclaim.ai

Habits and tasks defended on Google/Outlook calendars

Freemiumfrom $8/mo
Best for Calendar & tasks

Reclaim defends focus time and habits on the calendar you already have. Lighter than Motion. Still requires honesty about meetings.

Warp

Terminal with AI in the prompt

Freemiumfrom $15/mo
Best for Terminal / agents

Warp is a terminal that will draft commands. Review them. It is not an IDE replacement.

Windsurf

Codeium’s agentic IDE

Freemiumfrom $15/mo
Best for Repo-aware editsBest for IDE autocomplete

Windsurf is the other agentic IDE. Evaluate it next to Cursor on repo edits and price, not on Twitter heat.

Workato

Enterprise iPaaS with an AI story

Contact
Best for Complex branching

Workato is what RevOps buys when Zapier is a toy and IT wants an iPaaS with RBAC. Not a founder weekend project.

n8n

Self-host when you want the workflow file

Freemiumfrom $20/mo
Best for Self-hosted / cost controlBest for Complex branching

n8n is for teams that want the workflow as code/self-host, not a metered SaaS. Cloud exists; the point is control.

Cody

Code intelligence on the repo graph

Freemiumfrom $9/mo
Best for Repo-aware editsBest for Enterprise policy

Cody sits on Sourcegraph’s code graph. Best when the monorepo is the problem. Not a toy autocomplete.

Replit Agent

Cloud IDE that will try to build the app

Freemiumfrom $20/mo
Best for Terminal / agents

Replit is the fastest path from prompt to a running URL. Treat Agent output as a prototype until tests exist.

Gumloop

Canvas for AI-heavy flows

Freemiumfrom $37/mo
Best for AI agentsBest for Complex branching

Gumloop is a canvas aimed at AI pipelines: scrape, extract, generate. Treat outputs as drafts.

Tray.ai

Low-code iPaaS for product and ops

Contact
Best for Complex branching

Tray is the Merlin/low-code middle: more power than Zapier, less “hire an integration team” than MuleSoft.

Gemini

Google’s general model inside Workspace

Freemiumfrom $20/mo
Best for Everyday draftingBest for Breadth over depth

Gemini is the right general model if the team already lives in Google Workspace. It is a draft layer, not a brand system.

Continue

Open IDE agent you can point at your own models

Free
Best for IDE autocompleteBest for Enterprise policy

Continue is the bring-your-own-model assistant in VS Code/JetBrains. Correct when data cannot leave, or you already pay Anthropic/OpenAI directly.

Amazon Q Developer

AWS’s coding assistant, in the account you already fear

Freemiumfrom $19/mo
Best for IDE autocompleteBest for Enterprise policy

Amazon Q is the assistant that knows IAM and your account-shaped problems. Correct if AWS is already the job.

Relevance AI

Workforce of agents with tools

Contactfrom $19/mo
Best for AI agents

Relevance AI is an agent workbench: tools, knowledge, and workforce views. Start with one job and logs.

Gemini Code Assist

Google’s IDE assistant, especially on GCP

Freemiumfrom $19/mo
Best for IDE autocompleteBest for Enterprise policy

Gemini Code Assist is the Google-shaped Copilot. Right if GCP identity is already the constraint.

Tabnine

Completions you can air-gap

Freemiumfrom $9/mo
Best for Enterprise policyBest for IDE autocomplete

Tabnine is the privacy-first completion seat. Buy it when legal will not sign GitHub’s story.

You.com

AI search with modes, not just one chat

Freemiumfrom $15/mo
Best for Cited research

You.com is another cited-search seat with research modes. Use it if Perplexity is blocked or you want ARI-style research runs.

Power Automate

Microsoft’s automation seat you may already pay for

Paidfrom $15/mo
Best for Simple app-to-app

Power Automate is the correct first automation if the org is already in Microsoft 365. Do not buy Zapier first out of habit.

Mem

Notes that retrieve themselves

Paidfrom $8/mo
Best for Wiki / workspace

Mem is a notes app that bets on retrieval over folders. Fine for personal knowledge. A hard sell as a company wiki.

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AAT · How they compare

Price and complexity

List prices · hover a mark

Expensive

Easy

Complex

Cheap

Cursor

A developer buys it and is in the repo today.

Review

Confirm on the vendor page.

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