AI Coding Assistants and IDEs You Might Have Missed: Challenges and Future Potential

The AI revolution is underway, sweeping away the workflows we were once used to and introducing innovative automated and even agentic approaches. Software development has also stepped into a new AI-driven era, with AI-powered tools springing up like mushrooms after the rain. These tools aim to accelerate the coding process, reduce repetitive tasks, and elevate what it means to build software. 

In a series of our previous articles, we have already discussed our top pick for the most promising AI assistance and AI IDEs for 2025 and compared two main players, Windsurf and Cursor, with the battle between them intensifying once Windsurf reviewed its pricing policy. But apart from the tools that made our list, some other existing solutions and emerging AI startups might be worth keeping our eye on.

So, let's discuss other AI coding assistants and IDEs we might have missed from our top list, why they didn't make the cut, and their future potential.

Replit 

Replit is a popular browser-based AI IDE for collaborative software coding, testing, development and even deployment. Replit is like Google Docs for developers, where multiple users can edit a shared repl (project-specific IDEs), make real-time edits across files, and communicate via instant messaging. The IDE supports over 50 programming languages and has powerful AI‑driven features. Replit initially entered the AI coding assistant space with Ghostwriter, an in-browser copilot-like tool with auto-complete and basic AI code generation. In September 2024, Replit introduced Replit Agent, a conversational AI assistant that can understand and chat about the code. Beyond conversation, Replit Agent can assist with generating code, creating apps, and even deploying them directly. The AI model Replit uses was trained on a dataset that includes publicly available code, specifically code licensed under the MIT license or similar permissive open-source licenses. Integrated into the already user-friendly Replit environment, these AI tools significantly enhance productivity—especially for users already familiar with the platform.

Replit Key Features:

• Code completion and suggestions: Replit provides smart, context-aware code suggestions and generates entire blocks of code or even entire functions based on prompts or context within your project.

• Code explanation and comments: Replit offers explanations and comments on code snippets, acting as a coding tutor, helping developers understand code snippets and aiding them in understanding and documenting their code effectively.

• Natural language support: Developers can describe what they want in plain English, and the AI converts it into functioning code.

• Proactive debugging assistance: Replit aids in identifying potential bugs and suggests fixes, ensuring code accuracy and reducing errors. 

• AI Chat: Replit provides AI-powered assistance directly within the IDE for coding-related questions.

• Multi-language support: The tool supports 50 programming languages, such as JavaScript, Java, Python C, C#, C++, Go, PHP, Swift, Typescript, Perl, Python, R, Ruby, Rust, and more. 

Pricing (as of August 2024):

• Starter: free limited tier (for 3 public projects only)

• Core: $25/month (for unlimited access to AI chat and unlimited public and private projects)

• Teams: 40/month (for role-based access control and Private deployments)

Why it didn't make our initial list:

Replit has a strong reputation thanks to its collaborative tools, particularly in educational and beginner-friendly coding spaces. It was actively used for live coding sessions, enabling tutors and students to work on files together simultaneously. While it offers strong AI capabilities today, its initial AI tools, like Ghostwriter, were simpler in scope and might not have attracted the same level of attention in professional circles. But more importantly, at the end of August 2024, Replit announced significant changes to its pricing structure. These adjustments introduced limitations on the free Starter plan, allowing up to 3 public projects, which was unlimited earlier. Replit's AI features became more limited, requiring a paid subscription for full access. These updates turned away many of Replit's loyal users and made the tool entry point more expensive than some other alternatives on the market.

Aider

Aider is a free, open-source AI pair programming tool that, unlike other AI coding assistants, operates directly within your terminal and allows you to collaborate with large language models to edit code in your local Git repository.  It does not come with a built-in LLM. Developers must connect one or more external LLMs like GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Claude 3 Opus or DeepSeek Coder V3. While the LLMs mentioned above are recommended, you can also use free models like Gemini, Llama 3 70B on Groq, or even local ones via Ollama. The top-scoring AI model is Claude Sonnet 3.5. Aider commands include mapping your entire git repo to provide code context to LLMs, editing multiple files at once, and requesting changes. You may ask to add features, fix bugs, refactor the code, or update documentation. Aider automatically commits changes with sensible messages. Additionally, you can enhance your interaction by adding images and URLs. Aider even allows developers to code using their voice. While the main interface for Aider might be in the terminal, the AI comment feature can be fully utilized within the IDE itself.  For users in an IDE, AI comments like AI! or AI? trigger Aider to generate or modify code.

Aider Key features:

• Terminal integration and independence from IDE: Aider operates within your command-line interface, providing a streamlined workflow without the need for additional graphical interfaces.

• Ability to connect with any LLM: Aider allows collaboration with advanced language models to receive context-aware code suggestions and edits. Developers can choose the model that best fits their needs.

• Multi-language support:  Aider works well with the most popular coding languages like C, Go, Java, JavaScript, Kotlin, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, Scala, and TypeScript.

• Free: The tool is free to use for everyone, but costs can be connected to paid LLM.

Pricing:

• Aider is free of charge but can get expensive quickly with the LLM API usage. 

Why it didn't make our initial list:

Aider's terminal-based interface appeals primarily to developers who are comfortable with command-line tools as using it from the CLI or the web might seem cumbersome. While Aider offers robust features, other tools provide extensive integrations with popular IDEs and additional functionalities that attract a wider audience. The biggest drawback of Aider is that you have to track and optimize the costs yourself. There is no one-off fee, but it's a developer’s responsibility to select the LLMs, monitor and optimize their usage to manage expenses effectively.

IntelliCode

IntelliCode is an AI-powered tool developed by Microsoft for Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code. It provides highly relevant and accurate code suggestions, completions, and recommendations with the ability to analyze a developer's code context. It is actually an AI-boosted upgrade of the rudimentary IntelliSense code-completion functionality long baked in the IDEs. IntelliCode analyzes developer’s code and the patterns it recognizes to provide suggestions that are most likely relevant and useful in specific context. Those patterns are sourced from thousands of top-rated GitHub repositories. IntelliCode can detect the code repetitions and allow the same changes to be applied in many places, helping developers maintain consistency and save time. The tool supports various programming languages, but the availability of certain features depends on the programming language and the IDE variant. 

IntelliCode Key features:

• Intelligent contextual autocompletion: IntelliCode offers whole-line autocompletions by analyzing the code context.

• Hotspots identification: IntelliCode highlights areas of code that it recognizes as "hotspots”. These areas often involve complex logic, frequent modifications, or critical business functionality, allowing developers to pay closer attention to these parts of their code.

• Improved privacy: IntelliCode runs locally on the developer's machine, ensuring the privacy of the code.

• Refactoring assistance: The tool detects repetitive edits, where developers can apply changes consistently across their codebase. This feature helps maintain code uniformity and reduces manual errors. 

• Customizable AI models: Developers can train IntelliCode on their own codebases, allowing it to provide recommendations tailored to specific coding patterns and practices.

• Multi-language support: IntelliCode supports multiple programming languages, including C#, C++, Java, SQL, and XAML in Visual Studio 2022 and TypeScript/JavaScript and Python in Visual Studio Code.

• IDE Integration: In Visual Studio, it comes pre-installed, while in Visual Studio Code, it can be added via an extension.

Pricing: 

• Free for all Visual Studio users. 

Why it didn't make our initial list:

IntelliCode's strong points are its tight integration with Visual Studio and VS Code and its ability to provide free contextual code recommendations. Still, it is an old-school player, so its functionality is very limited compared to other AI-driven solutions capable of generating entire code snippets or functions based on natural language prompts. It simply doesn't match the code generation capabilities of some newer AI-driven solutions. Besides, its limited availability outside of Microsoft's development environments and feature variability across languages are factors to consider when evaluating its suitability for your workflow.

AskCodi

AskCodi is an AI-powered coding assistant offering code generation, refactoring, debugging, and documentation creation, as well as utilities for translating code between languages, writing unit tests, and managing databases. AskCodi allows developers to choose from various LLMs like GPT-4 or Claude, giving them flexibility in selecting a model based on performance and cost.   Its features include Codi Projects, which help developers organize their code, Codi Chat, which provides conversational assistance and answer their coding questions, and Codi Workbook, which offers an interactive environment for code generation, explanation, documentation, and testing. It supports a wide variety of programming languages and integrates with various IDEs. It also includes utilities for writing Makefiles, CI/CD pipelines, Dockerfiles, Kubernetes configurations, and more, making it a versatile toolkit aimed at improving coding efficiency, quality, and overall development processes. 

AskCodi Key features:

• Real-time code suggestions: AskCodi provides context-aware autocomplete and suggestions based on the context and code patterns. 

• Natural language requests: AskCodi can generate code snippets, entire functions, or even complete code blocks based on natural language prompts. Developers can describe what they need, and AskCodi generates the corresponding code. 

• Codi Chat: AskCodi provides a chat interface where developers can ask coding-related questions and receive answers, guidance, and suggestions. The feature also supports real-time code discussions and collaboration.

• Snippet repository: AskCodi provides access to a rich repository of commonly used code snippets, enabling developers to quickly insert reusable code blocks. 

• Code documentation: AskCodi offers a code documentation feature that generates comments and documentation for the code automatically. Every project comes with a built-in workbook that allows for the creation of user-friendly tests and documentation. Within the workbook environment, developers can generate, explain, document, and test code.

• Multi-language support: AskCodi supports over 50 languages and frameworks, including Python, Java, TypeScript, Rust, Ruby, Kotlin, JavaScript, C++, Haskell, Laravel, etc. 

• Programming language translation: AskCodi can translate code between different programming languages. It aims to help developers overcome language barriers and work with code written in unfamiliar languages. The feature supports seamless translation of code snippets, functions, and entire projects.

• IDE Integration: Integrates with various IDEs, including VS Code, PyCharm, and IntelliJ IDEA. 

Pricing: 

• Premium: $14.99/month (for 500 AI credits monthly, 10 LLM credits, access to 3 codespaces)

• Ultimate: $34.99/per month (for 1500 AI credits monthly, 25 LLM credits, access to 5 codespaces).

Why it didn't make our initial list:

While some competitors offer a broader range of features, AskCodi remains a strong tool for developers looking for AI-driven coding assistance. AskCodi didn't make our initial list mainly because, as of November 25, 2024, AskCodi has transitioned from a freemium model to a free trial model.  All new users receive a 7-day free trial of their chosen plan, allowing them to explore the full range of features before committing to a subscription. For existing free users, the free plan has been discontinued. Considering that some AI coding assistants offer free tiers or more affordable pricing models, it becomes hard for AskCodi to compete with them.

Qodo (formerly Codium)

Qodo (formerly Codium) is an AI-powered coding platform designed to enhance software development by assisting developers in writing, testing, and reviewing code directly within their IDEs and Git repositories. It offers contextual suggestions, automated code reviews, and comprehensive test generation to ensure robust, reliable software. Qodo uses advanced AI models including GPT-4 and Claude 3.5 Sonnet to deeply understand developer’s code structure, logic, and context to help them write better code. It learns from the developer's codebase and provides real-time suggestions that seamlessly integrate with their writing flow. With features like wide-range test coverage, bug detection, and vulnerability assessment, Qodo helps developers maintain high code quality standards while improving productivity. Code Completion is a Pro feature, exclusively available for Teams and Enterprise users.

Qodo Key features:

• Automated test generation: Qodo assists in generating and planning accurate and reliable unit tests without manual intervention. 

• Code explanation: Qodo offers detailed descriptions of the source code or snippets, breaking down each component and offering insights and sample usage scenarios to enhance code comprehension.

• AI-Powered Chat: Developers can engage with an AI-powered chat feature to seek guidance, explanations, and suggestions related to their code. 

• Precise code suggestions: Qodo offers intelligent code suggestions and completions, streamlining the coding process and reducing manual effort.

• Streamlined collaboration: Qodo facilitates teamwork by enabling seamless collaboration among developers. Its Git platform integration allows for sharing and reviewing code suggestions and test cases within your development team, promoting efficient workflows and code quality.

• IDE integration: It integrates with leading IDEs, including VSCode, WebStorm, IntelliJ IDEA, CLion, and PyCharm.

• Multiple language support: Qodo supports popular programming languages such as Java, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, C++, C# and Kotlin. However, functionality varies for each language and IDE.

Pricing:

• Free for individual use (includes features like test generation, bug detection, AI code reviews, code auto-documentation, and access to GPT-4 chat).

• Teams: $19/user/month (adds code autocomplete, pre-pull request reviews, and enhanced privacy).

• Enterprise: Custom pricing for larger organizations (offers self-hosted solutions, enterprise SSO, usage statistics and full organization codebase awareness).

Why it didn't make our initial list:

Qodo tries to cover everything—collaboration, testing, bug detection, documentation—which may make its focus less clear compared to tools that do one thing really well. Unlike its competitors, Qodo places more emphasis on teamwork and advanced code optimization. Since Qodo is relatively new, its exact popularity may not be as large yet. However, its robust feature set could appeal to developers looking for a more collaborative, multi-functional AI assistant. It's worth noting that in September 2024, Qodo raised substantial funding to accelerate its growth. Its popularity may increase over time as it continues to develop its platform and expand its user base.

MarsCode

MarsCode is an AI-powered online IDE offering cloud-based development environments, eliminating the need for local setup and enabling coding from anywhere with internet access. For developers using JetBrains IDEs and VS Code, MarsCode offers plugins that bring its AI capabilities directly into the development environment. By integrating advanced machine learning algorithms, MarsCode provides real-time coding suggestions for single lines or entire functions and also supports code explanation, unit test generation, and AI Q&A during the coding process. MarsCode stands out with its real-time error detection and automated code optimization. The tool claims all code data used for training come from open-source and compliant sources.

MarsCode Key Features:

• Smart code completion: MarsCode can comprehend the current code and provide subsequent code snippets. It also supports generating code snippets based on the code comments developers provide.

• Natural language requests: It interprets natural language inputs to generate corresponding code snippets.

• Code explanation: MarsCode offers detailed explanations of code segments, aiding in quick onboarding and comprehension of complex codebases.

• Real-time error detection: Identifies and highlights errors as developers type, reducing debugging time. It also provides intelligent suggestions for optimizations and fixes.

• AI Chat: Delivers precise answers to development-related queries, enhancing problem-solving capabilities during coding sessions.

• Automated code optimization: MarsCode suggests optimizations to improve code efficiency and performance.

• Multi-language support: MarsCode mentions to supports 100+ programming languages, but explicitly lists fewer languages among which are Go, Python, C++, C, C#, Java, PHP, Rust, TypeScript, JavaScript, Kotlin, Swift, Perl and Ruby. 

• IDE Integration: MarsCode integrates with mainstream IDEs like JetBrains IDEs and VS Code.

Pricing:

• Free within resource limitations.

Why it didn't make our initial list:

MarsCode offers comprehensive AI features and might seem a fantastic tool at first glance. But it can be a red flag when a tool like MarsCode provides limited details with no exhaustive information about its pricing and supported languages. Users need transparency, especially when deciding on the best tool for their needs. Discovering Chinese characters on different resources relating to the tool and references to a Singapore company adds to the ambiguity around MarsCode's ownership and its operations, particularly if you handle sensitive data or need to ensure regulatory compliance.

Continue

Continue is an open-source AI coding assistant designed to enhance software development by integrating advanced language models directly into popular IDEs. Developers can connect it to any LLM accessible via an API, including Claude Sonnet 3.5, GPT-4o, Gemini 1.5, or even local AI models through Ollama. It comes packed with many features, such as tab autocomplete, chat on code, highlight-to-rewrite code, and code indexing. Developers can collect context by highlighting and then asking questions in the sidebar or having an edit streamed directly to the editor.  For example, developers can type '@issue' to quickly reference a GitHub issue as they are prompting the LLM, ‘@README.md' to reference such a file, or '@google' to include the results of a Google search. Continue can be set up to run entirely on a developer's local machine, eliminating the need for external servers or third-party services and ensuring sensitive code and data remain on the user's machine, enhancing privacy and security. Continue is actively maintained and developed by a community of contributors. Developers can access the source code, contribute to its development, and customize it to fit their unique requirements.

Continue Key Features:

• Customizable autocomplete: Continue can autocomplete single lines or entire sections of code in any programming language as developers type. 

• AI chat: Continue enables understanding and iteration of code in the sidebar. Developers can attach code or other context to ask questions about functions, files, the entire codebase, and more.

• Natural language prompts:  Continue allows developers to highlight code sections and interactively modify their code using plain English instructions.

• Ability to connect with any LLM:  Developers to connect various LLMs and contexts to create personalized autocomplete and chat experiences within their IDEs. They can choose the model that best fits their needs, including local models using GGML or open-source models hosted on the own cloud infrastructure. 

• Open-source flexibility: As an open-source tool, Continue offers transparency and the ability for developers to tailor the assistant to their specific needs.

• IDE Integration: Continue integrates smoothly with IDEs like VS Code and JetBrains.

• Multi-language support: Continue supports any programming language compatible with the underlying IDEs it integrates with. 

Pricing:

• Continue is free and open source. But, as with Aider, actual costs will depend on which LLM is used.

Why it didn't make our initial list:

Continue offers a high degree of customization and flexibility. Such custom configurations may require more effort to set up and manage creating a steeper learning curve compared to proprietary AI coding assistants, offering out-of-the-box solutions. Continue, as an open-source software, also lacks polished user experience or effortless integration of proprietary tools. Additionally, like with Aider, the biggest drawback of Continue is that you have to track and optimize the costs yourself.  There is no one-off fee, but it's a developer’s responsibility to select the LLMs, monitor and optimize their usage to manage expenses effectively.

PearAI

PearAI is an open-source AI-powered code editor designed to streamline and accelerate development processes with various features such as AI chat, inline prompts, and debugging. It addresses the challenges developers face in selecting and managing multiple AI tools by offering a single, curated platform. This platform integrates top AI tools, reducing the need for separate subscriptions and fragmented user experiences. Tools such as Aider automate code generation for new features, refactors, or bug fixes. 'Supermaven', a code autocomplete tool, and Continue, an AI code assistant extension, are also natively incorporated for enhanced coding efficiency and user experience. Mem0 contributes a self-improving memory layer for applications, individualizing the coding journey, while Perplexity, an AI search engine, allows the inclusion of web content directly into requests. The selective inventory of tools integrated within PearAI is continually updated, ensuring users can access the best AI tools available. The software is built on top of VSCode, allowing for a seamless transition for developers already comfortable with this IDE. As an open-source project, PearAI allows developers to access and contribute to its codebase, fostering a transparent and collaborative development environment. 

PearAI Key Features:

• Unified experience: PearAI combines AI tools like Continue, Aider, Mem0, and Perplexity for an integrated, easy-to-use interface. 

• Open source transparency: As an open-source project, PearAI allows developers to access and contribute to its codebase, fostering a transparent and collaborative development environment.

• Customizable: PearAI offers flexibility for AI tools to communicate with each other and be seamlessly integrated into the PearAI workflow.

• Single Subscription: Provides a single subscription for all tools, simplifying management for developers.

Pricing:

• Free for individuals (offers access to PearAI with a free trial of 50 requests and the option to use your own API key or local models). 

• Junior Engineer: $15/month (adds monthly refill of PearAI Credits for leading AI models and full privacy with a zero data retention policy)

• 10x Engineer: billed annually at $120 (adds early access to new features)

Why it didn't make our initial list: 

While PearAI offers a comprehensive suite of AI tools, the project has faced criticism regarding its development approach. The founder, Duke Pan, was accused of copying significant elements from open-source projects like VS Code and tools like Continue, undermining its credibility as an innovative product. The critique extends to Y Combinator for supporting a startup with ethical and trust issues. The claim that PearAI initially made its product closed-source, despite allegedly using open-source code, highlights a breach of open-source principles. The eventual return to an Apache license and reopening of the code could have been a reaction to external pressure or legal considerations. The introduction of a paid tier for a product with open-source roots is also controversial. So, while PearAI has unique features, its controversial history, licensing inconsistencies, and restrictive pricing undermine its adoption and reputation.

Zed AI

Zed AI is a collaborative open-source code editor, augmented with AI-enabled coding support to optimize developer productivity and streamline team workflows through direct interaction with LLMs. Designed in collaboration with Anthropic, Zed uses Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet by default. However, it is also possible to plug in different LLM providers or use local options, allowing developers to select different models to enhance their productivity. Zed AI offers multiple interaction methods, including an assistant panel, slash commands, inline assistance, and a prompt library to provide features like intelligent code suggestions and completion, enhanced code understanding, navigation, and debugging assistance. Developers can also manually build context within their prompts using files and text, enabling a direct and consistent way to interact with the AI. External knowledge integration is supported via the /perplexity command. 

Zed AI Key Features:

• Intelligent code suggestions and completions: Zed AI offers context code suggestions and helps complete functions, variables, and methods quickly. 

• Natural language prompts: Developers can interact with it by typing natural language prompts, such as asking for code generation, refactoring, or even terminal commands. The AI can process these queries and provide relevant code or suggestions based on the context provided.

• AI Chat: Zed AI allows users to interact with AI by sending messages, adding files, terminal outputs, and other elements by typing a slash (/) to select options to the chat for context-based discussions. Files can be added to the chat for context, enabling discussions about code and related topics.

• Code navigation: Zed AI allows developers to easily navigate large codebases with AI-powered search and navigation assistance.

• Debugging support: AI provides suggestions for fixing errors and improving code quality. Users can generate, refactor, or edit code in real-time through the "inline assist" feature, with AI handling code updates and suggestions.

• Ability to connect with any LLM: Developers can choose the model that best fits their needs. They can use Claude 3.5 Sonnet via Zed AI for free. To use other Anthropic models they will need to configure it by providing their own API key.

• Multi-language support: Zed AI supports hundreds of programming languages and text formats, including popular C, C++, C#, Python, Java, JavaScript, Go, Rust, PHP, and more.

Pricing: Zed AI is available for free during our initial launch period, but paid plans are expected soon.

Why it didn't make our initial list:

Zed AI is a relatively new but promising player in the field and targets a specific audience of developers looking for an open-source editor with strong AI integration. It offers a unique blend combination of the open-source nature of the code editor with the cutting-edge capabilities of AI-driven coding support. Zed AI could gain traction, especially if it continues to innovate and refine its offerings. However, its success will depend on how well it continues to evolve, particularly in comparison to more established tools.