Cline
An open-source AI assistant that lives inside your code editor and can actually make changes across multiple files, run terminal commands, and fix its own mistakes — you approve each step, so it acts more like a careful junior developer than an autocomple
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Description
Most AI code assistants suggest one function or autocomplete one line at a time, leaving you to manually wire together anything that spans multiple files. Cline is built for the bigger jobs: it can plan out and execute a multi-file change, run the actual terminal commands needed (installing a package, running tests), and read linter output to fix its own errors, with a 'Plan and Act' toggle that lets you review its intended approach before it touches anything.
It's model-agnostic, working with Claude, GPT, Gemini, or local models via Ollama, and extensible through the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and a plugin system, with custom project rules defined in `.clinerules` files. Being open source, there's no subscription or seat fee — you pay only for the AI inference credits your usage consumes, bringing your own API key if you prefer. An Enterprise tier adds a JetBrains extension, SSO/OIDC/SCIM, an SLA, and dedicated support for larger organizations. It has over 8 million total installs, 65.1k GitHub stars, and is used at companies including Samsung, Salesforce, Oracle, Amazon, and Microsoft according to the company.
💬 Our review
The short version: Cline is one of the most credible open-source picks in the AI-coding-agent space right now — the install numbers (8M+) and GitHub star count (65.1k) reflect genuine, sustained community adoption rather than a launch-week spike, and being open source means you're never locked into one AI vendor.
Against GitHub Copilot, which is tightly bundled with GitHub and mostly focused on inline suggestions, Cline's agentic approach (multi-file edits, running terminal commands, fixing its own lint errors) is a fundamentally different and more ambitious scope of automation — genuinely useful if you want an agent that finishes a task, riskier if you want tight control over every line. Against Cursor, a closed-source IDE built around one opinionated AI workflow, Cline's model-agnostic, editor-agnostic approach (works as an extension, not a full IDE replacement) is the more flexible option if you don't want to switch your entire editor to get agentic coding. The 'pay only for inference' pricing model is genuinely attractive since there's no subscription tax, but it also means costs scale with usage in a way that's less predictable than a flat monthly fee — worth tracking closely if you turn it loose on large refactors. <!-- ai-generated -->
💰 Pricing
📊 Global score
🤖 AI-enriched data
Gratuit (open source), paiement uniquement des crédits d'inférence IA consommés (clé API personnelle possible). Enterprise sur devis (SSO, SLA, support dédié).
Pros
8M+ installations totales, 65,1k étoiles GitHub — adoption communautaire réelle et soutenue
Agnostique au modèle (Claude, GPT, Gemini, Ollama local) — pas de verrouillage fournisseur
Peut exécuter des commandes terminal et corriger ses propres erreurs de lint
Clients entreprise cités : Samsung, Salesforce, Oracle, Amazon, Microsoft
Cons
Coût à l'usage moins prévisible qu'un abonnement plat, peut grimper sur de gros refactors
Portée d'automatisation plus large que Copilot = plus de risque si contrôle ligne par ligne recherché
Extension d'éditeur, pas un IDE complet comme Cursor — nécessite déjà un éditeur configuré
Prix Enterprise non public, à négocier au cas par cas