GitHub Copilot vs Continue

Detailed side-by-side comparison to help you choose the right tool

GitHub Copilot

🔴Developer

AI coding assistant

GitHub Copilot is a AI coding assistant for everyday coding assistance, repository-aware code review and explanations.

Was this helpful?

Starting Price

Custom

🔴Developer

AI Coding

Open-source AI coding extension for VS Code and JetBrains — bring any model, configure custom rules, share assistants across your team.

Was this helpful?

Starting Price

Custom

Scroll horizontally to compare details.

Feature	GitHub Copilot	Continue
Category	AI coding assistant	AI Coding
Pricing Plans	160 tiers	36 tiers
Starting Price
Key Features	• AI autocomplete and chat in popular IDEs • GitHub-native context for repositories, issues, pull requests, and actions • Agentic coding workflows for multi-file changes	• Multi-model AI support including OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, and local models • Native IDE extensions for VS Code and JetBrains with smooth workflow integration • MCP server connectivity for development toolchain integration

✓Deep GitHub integration: code suggestions, chat, PR summaries, code review help, and repository context live where many engineering teams already work.
✓Clear plan ladder: Free, Pro at $10/month, Pro+ at $39/month, Business at $19/user/month, and Enterprise at $39/user/month.
✓MCP support in VS Code/Copilot agent workflows lets teams expose approved external tools instead of copy-pasting context manually.
✓Strong enterprise fit with policy controls, organization management, and standardized rollout across GitHub repositories.

✗Quality still depends on tests and reviewer discipline; Copilot can generate plausible but wrong code, especially in unfamiliar domains.
✗Best experience is tied to the GitHub/Microsoft ecosystem, so GitLab-heavy or JetBrains-only teams may prefer alternatives.
✗Pro+ and Enterprise pricing can add up quickly for teams that already pay for IDE, CI, and security tooling.

✓Open-source under Apache 2.0 — no vendor lock-in or proprietary protocols
✓Genuinely supports JetBrains as a first-class citizen, not an afterthought
✓YAML config and Continue Hub make team-wide standardization trivial
✓Transparent pricing: $3/M tokens Starter, $20/seat/month Team — no hidden seat costs
✓Mix local and hosted models in one extension — cheap autocomplete, expensive chat
✓Strong on-prem story for regulated enterprises (BYOK, internal proxies, no telemetry)

✗Less polished UX than closed-source competitors like Cursor or GitHub Copilot
✗Agent mode is younger than Cline's and has fewer guardrails
✗Hub assistants quality varies — vetting community configs takes effort
✗$3/M tokens Starter is competitive but not the cheapest if you BYO API keys directly

Not sure which to pick?

🦞

Read practical guides for choosing and using AI tools

🔔

Get notified when AI tools lower their prices

Comparisons, new tool launches, and expert recommendations delivered to your inbox.

Read the full reviews to make an informed decision