The 5 best Cursor alternatives

They were, and all three changed status in 2026 — which is exactly why we re-check rather than repeat an old list. Roo Code’s extension was shut down on 15 May 2026 and its repository is archived. Void was deprecated and its repository archived on 2 June 2026. Continue is a different case: the repository is still open and still receives commits, but its last feature release was v2.1.0 on 19 June 2026 and everything since has been documentation changes — including one retiring the hosted login flow. The Apache-2.0 extension still works against your own API keys; what has stopped is new model support and active development. If you are already on Continue there is no emergency, but we would not start there in 2026.

Yes, and it's a sensible way to test one without changing editors. Cursor draws third-party extensions from the Open VSX registry, and Cline is published there under Apache-2.0 (v4.0.12 as of 28 July 2026, ~5.5M Open VSX downloads), so it installs into Cursor and runs on your own API key. Be precise about what that buys you, though: Cline's requests go straight to your chosen provider, but Cursor's own built-in features still route through Anysphere's backend. Running Cline inside Cursor lowers your model bill and gives you an exit path — it does not make the setup local.

Technically yes — Cline, opencode and Aider all support Ollama, LM Studio or any OpenAI-compatible local endpoint, and OpenHands runs its entire stack on your own infrastructure. The honest part is capability and cost. Cline's docs suggest 16–32 GB RAM for small quantised models, 32–64 GB for mid-size coding models and 64 GB+ for larger long-context ones; Ollama's default qwen3-coder tag (30B total, ~3.3B active) is a 19 GB download with a 256K context window, so ~24 GB VRAM or a 32 GB+ unified-memory machine is a realistic floor. And a local model in 2026 will not match a frontier cloud model on hard multi-file agent work. Fully local is the right answer when the code cannot leave the building; otherwise most people use a cloud key and keep the local path for sensitive repositories.

For a lot of teams, yes. Cursor states that with Privacy Mode enabled none of your code is stored by Cursor or any third party, and that it maintains zero-data-retention agreements with its model providers; team and enterprise admins can enforce it, and new members inherit the team setting. Two things to weigh. With Privacy Mode off, Cursor says it may use and store codebase data, prompts, editor actions and code snippets to improve its models — so it matters that it's actually enabled. And codebase indexing uploads chunks of code to compute embeddings, with the embeddings and metadata such as file names and hashes potentially retained. If your requirement is stricter — no code leaves our network, at all — that is an architectural requirement no hosted product satisfies, and it points to a self-hosted agent against a local model.

Two honest routes. If you want it open: install Cline into the editor you already use and add an API key. Developers on moderate use often land under a $20 seat, because you pay per token rather than a subscription plus overage. If openness isn't the point: GitHub Copilot Pro is $10/month flat and there's a free tier to test on. The route that reliably costs more, not less, is a frontier model on your own key driving long autonomous agent runs — that can exceed any subscription quickly. Measure a real week of your own usage before you commit either way.

Because the score measures openness and control, not fit. opencode scores 93 to Cline's 92 — it's MIT and terminal-first — and OpenHands is the most genuinely self-hosted of the group. Cline is the recommendation because for someone coming from Cursor it is the smallest change that keeps the same shape of work: same editor, same keybindings, agent in the sidebar, your own key. If you already live in a terminal, start with opencode instead. The score is a transparency lens you can weigh yourself; the recommendation is editorial judgment, and we show both so you can disagree with us.

All real, all open source, all actively developed, and all worth a look — we ranked the five above on breadth of fit for someone coming from Cursor, not because these are weaker projects. Gemini CLI (Apache-2.0, ~106k stars) is the strongest free-tier route if you're comfortable in Google's ecosystem. Qwen Code (Apache-2.0, ~26k stars) is a terminal agent built around the open-weight Qwen models, which makes it a natural fit if you intend to host the model yourself too. goose (Apache-2.0, ~52k stars) is an extensible general-purpose agent that goes beyond code. Kilo Code (MIT, ~27k stars) is another actively developed VS Code agent. Star counts verified via the GitHub API on 2026-07-29.