Roo Code vs. Copilot vs. Cline vs. Kilo Code vs. Augment Code: The Ultimate Coding Assistant.

Key Takeaways

Hello, this is my top five coding assistant recommendation for Visual Studio Code. They are guaranteed to boost your productivity at least 40% and make your coding speed much faster. All this coding extension is based on my experience and what I have used. I made this list to cover all your needs from the extremely powerful options that you can pay as you want for to the cheap and the affordable but still very strong alternative and everything in between. Note before we start these are just plugin inside Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio Code only. We're not covering editor like Corsor or Windsurf or Kiru. The reason is the editors that I mentioned are all of them are built on top of Visual Studio Code. They're just adding their own flavor of the editor. Also, Visual Studio Code extremely powerful and bubbler and flexible to do what you want with it. So, that's being said, let's get started. My first recommendation is Rorow Code. This is by far the strongest Visual Studio Code coding assistant right now. It is started as a fork from another coding assistant plug-in called client. We will talk about it a little bit later. But what makes rorow code this strong? First, it's extremely flexible. You can use it with any model that you want either from openi, googlei cloud, deepse models or any opensource or even a local based model that you have running on your machine. You can have almost 100% control over everything that you want to do inside this extension. You can customize as much as you can. You can change the base system prompt itself and create custom one for different programming languages like Python or JavaScript or Java or Go or C++ or even specific projects prompt. It have a lot of powerful tools. the basic one like read and write and create and on top of that of course the terminal access it can execute terminal command for you it have on top of that advanced feature the first one is the to-do list one of the best new feature they're allowing the AI to create a to-do list for task it can also it can also ask you question in the middle of a task so it will make the AI hallucinate less if it ask you questions it have also access to the MCB you and choose whatever what you want from it. It have codebase indexing. It started a very limited but right now it have customizable code codebase indexing that will need some setup which allow the AI to have better understanding of your entire code base and access in much better and faster way. You can choose your own embedding provider and a vector database for the semantic code search. It have something called boomerang mode or right now called the orchestrator. It's a very powerful mode that kind of acting like a senior developer given a smaller tasks to junior developer. The orchestrator usually work with bigger large task and it breaks them down to a smaller task and give it to a different modes inside the agents. For example, if it need code, it will switch to the coding mode and if it need debugging, it will switch to the debugging mode. any one of them are done with the assigned task, it will go back to the orchestrator with a summary of what it did and from there the orchestrator it will continue working on this large task. It have something called profile. You can assign certain models for specific modes. For example, for the cooling mode, you can use non-syncing model like the haiku 4.5, which I made a video about it few days ago and why I recommend it. And for the orchestrator, you can use thinking model like the sonet 4.5 or the Gemini 2.5 Pro. It's insanely powerful with this amazing feature that it have. It have one giant flow that kind of made me step away from it currently. It consumed the insane amount of tokens which when you're using it in larger project. Ruko doesn't have its own AI integration you will bring your own AI model that you want to use. For example, if you want to use the set model, you have to create account inside cloud anthropobic and create a key and set up the model inside Roour and so on for the Gemini and so on for any other model that you want to use and that will lead you to buy a lot of tokens and pay a lot of money for different APIs and with even I modify the original prompt and control the tasks heavily, it still eats your token and your money like crazy. Especially if you are working on larger projects and have a lot of feature that you want to do and I'm not talking about like the simple e-commerce project or the simple project that monitoring or storing data and it's kind of midlevel project not a high project that have a certain complexity inside it for example last month I used it on some very intense task and I found myself consumed almost $150 $50 in cloud alone and not mention Gemini cost. Currently, they have their own plan for teams for anyone who want to use them either a single developer or inside an enterprise company. They make you do bull request reviews using agents in the cloud and you can control task from anywhere. That's amazing. With that being said, Ro code right now is the most flexible and insanely good coding extension in Visual Studio Code. The only issue it have, it burned tokens like crazy and that will be fixed in my next recommendation. Say hello to GitHub. Go buy it. This extension was complete trash. Absolute worthless crap. When I started using it, I could not handle using it more than half an hour and basically uninstall and disable it from Visual Studio Code completely cuz it did more damage to the code more than it did benefit for it until recently more like 4 months ago or 5 months ago they made a huge improvement by introducing new model that wasn't available at GitHub at all like the Sonnet the Gemini and the best improvement they did is creating the agent mode itself. The agent mode that they have was the worst agent that I have ever used for a long time. It was so bad that GitHub copiot was considered not to be recommended at all if you're a professional developer. It's only good for autocomplete, but right now it's getting honestly way too good. I can use it as my main coding assistant and I don't have to worry all about the coding quality especially if you're using a good model like the haiko or the gemini bro or the set or even the GBT codeex and I also don't have to worry about the token consumption which which was the problem I have with ro code because GitHub co-ilit have a very good pricing right now in the market. The first one you can use it for free. it have a very limited access for a certain model like the GBT 4.1 which I don't consider it as a good model at all but then you can use it for an entire 1 month as a free trial and you can get access to the first plan which is $10. It give you a premium access to certain model that are really good like the Sonet Gemini Pro and Hiko and GBT codeex all the stuff called the premium request. Each request you will make will take a percentage from the premium request available and I thought it would be consumed in like a week maybe 5 days like very very fast but no somehow every longer chat will consume like 1% or 2% from the premium request and some of this model don't consume anything at all like the open AI model the GBT 4.1 which I don't recommend but I highly recommend the Gro code cost. It's a very decent model. The only limitation that we have if you consumed all the premium request that you have, you have to buy additional ones. But also, you can upgrade to another plan which charge you like 39. Let's say it's a $40, but it give you six time bigger the current basic plan in term of premium request. And so far, I didn't need to upgrade, which is kind of surprised to me. it the GitHub copilot currently have all the basic tools like the read and write and create and code execution and also a very good search inside your own code and it can guide the AI very well. It also have access to all the code available publicly on GitHub which make it extremely valuable. It also have a custom tools that you can create by yourself or get it from online. It have also access to the MCB and control over the ROM, but it's not the same level of flexibility as RO code. Nonetheless, it's one of the most powerful and affordable recommendation right now and you can start with it for free for the first month and by the end of this month, you will decide if you will continue with it or not. for my next recommendation which is named Klein. The original coding assistant that made the best start for all the current coding assistant that we are using. Klein was ahead of its time when it released in my opinion. It was like built by developer who understand exactly how AI should be integrated inside the visual studio code. It didn't have the Kobe and based stuff. It made the coding assistant experience extremely crazy good and actually it was the original fork of ro code. So basically row code took client and built on top of it as a start but have a very balanced approach. It's not like super flexible like ro code or have an affordable clean blend like GitHub but it's like kind kind of holding the stick from the middle as you say. It's a perfect balance. It make it it make it flexible enough to control what you want but not going crazy like ro code and it's not consume a lot of tokens or making it super affordable like GitHub that you have to pay only $10 to use it. You also have to get your own AI key rode but you don't have to worry a lot about the token consumption and money when using client for some reason. I find it the balance that the beginner need from a coding assistant. It also have right now your own pricing plan that you can check out. Currently until the end of the year, your team plans is costing $0. After that, it's $20 from starting the coming year. But for now, you can bring your own ABI key also like Rode. And you don't have to worry about the token and the money like in Rodeo. It also they are known for supporting open-source models and project which is kind of what any good developer will do right now in the AI field. They are standing in support behind model like the glim 4.6 from the Z.ai AI by tuning the system ROM that they have inside client and setting the thing up for the model itself to work very well with the agent and coding environment which is kind of awesome to see they are doing it. Next up is kind of the grandson of Klein. His name is Kilo or some people call it Kylo. This extension is very similar to code because it's combined some of the row code abilities and the client capabilities. It take the simplicity of client and the beginner friendly UI and combined it with the row code advanced capability. It have an impressive growth right now. Currently, it's the fastest growing coding extension in the world. Number one on open router with a half million user and 4.9 trillion tokens used per month. They only started this April and started taking off really well at last August this year. They have a ton of feature. They claim they are the most open plugin and they are made for heavy usage. And the original idea actually of orchestrator which was made by Kilo is originally was called the bombering mode in Ro code but kilo took it and make this idea much much better. Also, kilo code has reportedly have less hallucination where used with the same UI model as row code or client. In short, if you're using kilo code, you will be kind of using client and row code combined at the same time, which is actually very good for someone who is new to coding assistant world. And also, kilo code, you have to get your own AI key from somewhere, whatever model that you want, you have to get the AI key access to it. By far until now, the only one you don't have to get your AI key or set up anything is GitHub copilot because you basically paying for using the model itself. They handle the AI integration in the back end by themselves. And also the upcoming extension that I'm going to talk about, which is finally the last recommendation on my list that I have an extremely bad history with augment code. A very short story. Few months ago, the first time that I ever made a video about augment code, I singlehandedly made the augment code team go from free unlimited tier to a white listed that you have to get accepted to use it and a very limited free tier less than 24 hours because the video that I made for some reason and the people started using it really like crazy. And then I started to get some heated comments about how I lied and that it's not open source and it's not for free and you need to wait until to use it. It was a fun time. Anyway, why I recommended right now even if it's the best feature that it have currently behind the price plan? The reason is it's the most rich clean feeling ex extension or plugin basically of them all. It's like they took all the best feature from Corser and AI editor which is currently the best AI editor and put it inside Visual Studio Code. Yeah, the pricing is now is too much to be honest for the good plan which is a $60 per month. It give you a ton of credit. They are also have one of a small plan called the indie developer. It's $20 per month. But if you like if you like fixed B lens that also give you the best quality of result and the ease of use this one for sure it have autoco completion it have agents mode it have CLI integration also MCB and the native tools and one of the best context engine ever I have seen you can understand the entire logic of your project you're working on only by using project indexing and this is like the best thing ever they have. When I tried it, the entire code was basically kind of understood by the AI, which resulted less hallucination and less messed up code that generated by the AI and saved a lot of time. And I don't recommend it only if you have a budget less than $60 per month for coding. It will not work for you. But if you have a very large project and you need the best quality of coding, this one is for you. And that was it. I am done with the main recommendation coding extension to use but I have two additional ones for people who like openi and the gemini models. If you have shbt blend right now you can go and install the openi coding agent in visual studio code and use it. That thing honestly is very good and that's a very odd thing to say because openi is not known for having the best affordable coding models at all. The last time that I used it is the G with the GBT 4.1. What was and it actually was made only for coding. It was the worst coding model that I have ever seen from a web company like Obonyi, but right now they have the GBT 5i. Currently, it's the best coding model ever followed by the OBS 4.1 model. I can use it actually in GitHub copilot under the premium request. But if you have the pro plan or the educational plan or any plan in shvt, you actually can use it in visual studio code. And the second one, if you are a big fan of Gemini models, you can right now use a new CLI called the Gemini CLI companion. instead of using the Gemini code assist and I don't recommend actually this extension at all the Gemini code assist. It's right now one of the worst assistant ever and that's weird to say because it's coming from Google and and instead you can switch to use the JCLI companion instead. It's not the same level of fancy UI as RO code or client at all but I highly recommend it as a terminal. It have a lot of extension inside it and you can use it with the Gemini model or any other model that you want and it's actually very good result and it also opens source. And that's it for today ladies and gentlemen. I am done with all the recommendation. All these recommendation are based on my own experience. All of the stuff I have used it this year. So technically they are up to date and I highly recommend for beginner to go with the GitHub go buy it first and if you didn't like it and you have some money that you can throw inside an AI I highly recommend either row code or client they are both of them are amazing but if you have more money to spend you can go and subscribe to augment code that will cover everything from $10 affordable plan to $60 or even going higher like I did last month and pay more than $150 per month for a coding assistant. So, choose your B and let me know down below what you think which one is the best. Id like to read all the comment down below in my videos. So, thank you for watching and see you on the next