Comparison
Aider vs Claude Code
Aider: Free terminal coding agent, with Git built in. Claude Code: Anthropic's coding agent, in your terminal and your editor.
| Aider | Claude Code | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.4 | 4.8 |
| Price | Free Free and open source (Apache 2.0). You only pay for the API of the model you use, or nothing if you run it locally with Ollama. | Paid Included in Claude's paid plans: Pro $17/month annual ($20 monthly), Max $100 and $200/month. Teams from $20/seat. Also available via API. |
| Free plan | ||
| API available | ||
| Open source | ||
| In Spanish | ||
| No watermark | — | — |
| Platforms | Windows · Mac · Linux | Windows · Mac · Linux · Web |
Aider
- Free and open source, no subscription
- Every AI edit is a reviewable Git commit
- Works with more than 75 providers, including local models
- You have to bring your own API key and pay for tokens
- No graphical interface: everything happens in the terminal
Claude Code
- Understands whole repositories and works across many files at once
- One subscription covers Claude web, desktop, mobile and Claude Code
- Anthropic doubled the usage limits in May 2026
- No free plan: it requires a paid subscription from day one
- Once weekly limits run out it can switch to per-token billing