Cline vs opencode
Both are alternatives to Cursor. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as opencode vs Cline — same comparison, one verdict.
Cline
TOP PICKThe open-source agent that lives in the editor you already have.
Cline (Apache-2.0, by Cline Bot Inc.) is an autonomous coding agent that installs as a VS Code extension, a JetBrains plugin or a CLI — so you keep your editor, your extensions and your keybindings and simply add the agent. It is model-agnostic: bring your own key for Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Bedrock and 100+ others, or point it at Ollama or LM Studio and run the whole loop on your own machine. Cline sells optional prepaid credits and an enterprise tier, but nothing about the extension requires an account, and with your own key there is no Cline backend in the request path. At roughly 4.81 million VS Code installs and 65.2k GitHub stars it is the most widely adopted open-source coding agent, and because it is published on Open VSX you can also install it inside Cursor itself.
opencode
The terminal-native agent with the largest open-source community in the category.
opencode (MIT) is a coding agent that runs in your terminal, with a desktop app in beta and IDE extensions alongside it. It is deliberately provider-agnostic — 75+ providers via the AI SDK and Models.dev, including Ollama, LM Studio and any OpenAI-compatible local endpoint — and it ships two built-in agents: a full-access `build` agent and a read-only `plan` agent for exploring a codebase before anything is allowed to change it. It is now the most-starred project in this space at roughly 191k GitHub stars, maintained by Anomaly after the repository moved from `sst/opencode` to `anomalyco/opencode`. The optional opencode Zen gateway sells curated, benchmarked models pay-as-you-go and includes some free ones; using your own provider keys stays free.
Side by side
| Cline | opencode | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 92 | 93 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first | Yes | Yes |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Pricing | Free and open source (Apache-2.0) — you pay only your model provider. Optional prepaid Cline credits and a paid enterprise tier exist; bring-your-own-key needs no account. | Free and open source (MIT) — you pay your own provider. The optional opencode Zen gateway is pay-as-you-go, with some free models; your own API keys cost nothing extra. |
Cline is Macrostack's recommended Cursor alternative, so it's our pick here.
Cline
Strengths
- +Keeps your existing IDE, extensions and keybindings — the smallest possible change from Cursor
- +Bring-your-own-key with no account required: 100+ providers, or fully local via Ollama / LM Studio
- +Plan/Act split and diffs you approve before anything is written, plus MCP tool support
- +The most-adopted open agent in the category: ~4.81M VS Code installs, 65.2k stars, commits daily
Trade-offs
- −No inline Tab-style autocomplete — Cline is an agent, not a completion engine, and this is its most-requested missing feature
- −You manage your own API billing; long agent runs on a frontier model can cost more than a $20 Cursor seat
- −Cline's own prepaid-credits path is the promoted onboarding — bring-your-own-key takes a couple of extra settings
- −Running a capable model locally is a real hardware ask (see the hardware note)
opencode
Strengths
- +MIT and provider-agnostic by design — 75+ providers, plus Ollama, LM Studio or any OpenAI-compatible local endpoint
- +The read-only `plan` agent lets you scope work before the agent can touch a file
- +Terminal-first, so it works over SSH on a server or a modest machine
- +The largest community in the category and daily commits
Trade-offs
- −Terminal-first is a genuine adjustment coming from an editor-integrated agent; the desktop app is still beta
- −No inline autocomplete — a different tool for a different job than Cursor's Tab
- −Ownership moved from SST to Anomaly; the MIT licence means no practical risk, but it's worth knowing
- −Large configuration surface (providers, models, agents) — more to learn than picking from a dropdown
Related alternative guides
Facts verified 2026-07-29. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.