Is Continue worth it?

Continue is worth it if developers who want a fully open-source, self-hosted ai assistant with control over which models and data leave their machine. It's not the right pick if developers who prefer a fully managed, no-configuration coding assistant out of the box. A free tier lets you test it at no cost first.

Does Continue have a free tier?

Yes, Continue offers a free tier or free plan.

What are the best Continue alternatives?

Top alternatives include Cursor, Aider, Amazon Q Developer. See the full comparison on our Continue alternatives page.

Continue

Open-source AI coding assistant for VS Code and JetBrains

AI Coding

Free tier

open-source

self-hosted

vscode

jetbrains

Continue is Open-source AI coding assistant for VS Code and JetBrains. Best for developers who want a fully open-source, self-hosted ai assistant with control over which models and data leave their machine. Pricing: Free and open-source (self-hosted with your own API keys); hosted plans reportedly from ~$10/mo — check continue.dev. A free tier is available.

Overview

Continue is an open-source IDE extension that brings customizable AI chat, inline autocomplete, and agentic edits to VS Code and JetBrains. It supports any LLM provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, local Ollama, etc.) and keeps code on your machine. Its open-source repository remains active on GitHub.

Best for

Developers who want a fully open-source, self-hosted AI assistant with control over which models and data leave their machine.

Not for

Developers who prefer a fully managed, no-configuration coding assistant out of the box.

What people use it for

Bring-your-own-model AI chat

Inline autocomplete with local LLMs

Codebase-aware Q&A

Custom AI workflows

Alternatives to Continue

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Free tier

Multi-file refactoring

Codebase-wide chat

Free Hobby tier; Pro ~$20/user/mo; Business ~$40/user/moVisit

Continue vs Cursor

Aider

Open-source AI pair programmer in your terminal

Free tier

Multi-file refactoring from a prompt

Bug fixes via natural language

Free and open-source; you pay only underlying LLM API costs — light use ~$5-20/mo, heavy use can reach $50-200+/moVisit

Continue vs Aider

Amazon Q Developer

AWS's AI coding assistant for building, transforming, and operating on AWS

Free tier

AWS-aware code completion

Java version upgrades

Free tier; Pro from ~$19/user/moVisit

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Augment Code

AI coding agent built for large, complex codebases

Full-codebase contextual completion

Multi-file agentic refactoring

Indie from ~$20/mo; Developer ~$50/mo; Business from ~$100/mo; Enterprise custom — verify at augmentcode.comVisit

Continue vs Augment Code

Frequently asked questions

Is Continue worth it?: Continue is worth it if developers who want a fully open-source, self-hosted ai assistant with control over which models and data leave their machine. It's not the right pick if developers who prefer a fully managed, no-configuration coding assistant out of the box. A free tier lets you test it at no cost first.
What is Continue?: Continue is Open-source AI coding assistant for VS Code and JetBrains. It's best for developers who want a fully open-source, self-hosted ai assistant with control over which models and data leave their machine.
How much does Continue cost?: Free and open-source (self-hosted with your own API keys); hosted plans reportedly from ~$10/mo — check continue.dev
Does Continue have a free tier?: Yes, Continue offers a free tier or free plan.
What are the best Continue alternatives?: Top alternatives include Cursor, Aider, Amazon Q Developer. See the full comparison on our Continue alternatives page.