Honest pros, cons, and verdict on this ai coding tool
✅ Supports chat, autocomplete, edits, and agents in VS Code and JetBrains
Starting Price
Free
Free Tier
Yes
Category
AI Coding
Skill Level
Developer
Open-source AI code assistant for VS Code and JetBrains with a hub for custom assistants, MCP tools, prompts, and rules — the go-to when a team wants a Copilot-shaped experience they fully control.
Continue is an open-source AI code assistant that installs in VS Code and JetBrains and brings chat, autocomplete, edit, and agent workflows against any model — hosted or local. Its differentiator is Continue Hub: a shared marketplace where teams publish and version "assistants," which bundle together a system prompt, model roster (chat, autocomplete, embed, rerank), tool set, rules, docs, and MCP servers into a single installable package. That makes it straightforward for a platform team to ship a company-standard assistant to every developer while letting individuals fork and customize. Continue supports any inference provider — Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, Mistral, Bedrock, Vertex, Groq, Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM — and includes strong local-model support for developers who need to keep code off external APIs. The MCP integration is first-class; assistants can consume MCP servers for browsers, databases, tickets, and internal APIs, and Continue's Agent mode uses these tools inside a plan/act loop. Pricing has a generous free Solo tier and paid Teams and Enterprise tiers for shared assistants, private hub, SSO, and central billing. For organizations that want a genuinely open, forkable alternative to Copilot without giving up team-level distribution, Continue is the natural pick.
per month
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GitHub Copilot Review (2026): GitHub's AI pair programmer that suggests code completions and entire functions in real-time across multiple IDEs.
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Learn more →AI-first code editor with autonomous coding capabilities. Understands your codebase and writes code collaboratively with you.
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Learn more →Open-source terminal coding agent that pairs with git, edits multiple files at once, and works with any leading LLM.
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Learn more →Continue delivers on its promises as a ai coding tool. While it has some limitations, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks for most users in its target market.
Open-source AI code assistant for VS Code and JetBrains with a hub for custom assistants, MCP tools, prompts, and rules — the go-to when a team wants a Copilot-shaped experience they fully control.
Yes, Continue is good for ai coding work. Users particularly appreciate supports chat, autocomplete, edits, and agents in vs code and jetbrains. However, keep in mind model and embedding configuration can be more work than a bundled assistant.
Yes, Continue offers a free tier. However, premium features unlock additional functionality for professional users.
Continue is best for Platform teams that want to ship a company-standard AI assistant to every developer and Privacy-focused shops running local or self-hosted models. It's particularly useful for ai coding professionals who need open-source ai assistant for configurable developer workflows.
Popular Continue alternatives include GitHub Copilot Review (2026), Cursor, Aider. Each has different strengths, so compare features and pricing to find the best fit.
Last verified March 2026