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Alex Chen
Alex Chen

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I Tested 4 Free AI Coding Assistants Against Copilot — One Came Within 1 Point

Why I did this

Every free AI coding tool claims to be "as good as Copilot." Most aren't. But which one gets closest? I spent 3 weeks testing MonkeyCode, Continue.dev, Tabby, and Codeium against my $10/mo Copilot on the same 5 real tasks. Here's what actually happened — with numbers.

The test setup

Five tasks from my actual work (FastAPI backend + React frontend):

  1. Write a CRUD endpoint with validation (greenfield)
  2. Fix a race condition bug (debugging)
  3. Refactor a 200-line function into modules (multi-file)
  4. Write pytest tests for an existing module (test gen)
  5. Explain + optimize a slow SQLAlchemy query (comprehension)

Scoring: does the output work without edits (3 pts), works with minor edits (2), needs heavy rework (1), useless (0). Max 15 per tool.

All local tests ran on my machine: RTX 4070 (12GB), Ryzen 7, models via Ollama.

The results

Tool Score /15 Latency (completion) Privacy Cost
Copilot (baseline) 13 ~300ms ☁️ cloud $10/mo
MonkeyCode 12 ~350ms (cloud model) ☁️/💻 hybrid $0
Continue + Qwen2.5-Coder 7B 10 ~90ms local 💻 local $0
Tabby (self-hosted, StarCoder) 8 ~110ms local 💻 local $0
Codeium free 9 ~400ms ☁️ cloud $0

Controversial take: the $10/mo baseline won — but only by one point. For a tool that costs nothing, MonkeyCode's agent mode (multi-step, runs commands, reads multiple files) outperformed everything except Copilot's autocomplete speed. I did not expect that.

Task-by-task breakdown

Task 1 (CRUD endpoint): All five produced working code. Copilot and MonkeyCode included Pydantic validation unprompted. Tabby's output missed the response_model.

Task 2 (race condition): This separated the tools. Copilot and MonkeyCode both identified the missing lock. The 7B local models (Continue, Tabby) suggested a retry loop — technically masks the bug rather than fixing it. Score penalty there.

Task 3 (multi-file refactor): Only MonkeyCode's agent mode and Copilot Chat could operate across files. Completion-only tools scored near zero here — they can't.

# Task 2 actual fix (what the good tools suggested)
import asyncio

class RateLimiter:
    def __init__(self):
        self._lock = asyncio.Lock()
        self._counts = {}

    async def hit(self, key: str) -> int:
        async with self._lock:   # the missing piece
            self._counts[key] = self._counts.get(key, 0) + 1
            return self._counts[key]
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Task 4 (test generation): Everyone did fine. Test generation is the easiest task for LLMs in 2026 — low context, clear structure. Continue + Qwen actually matched Copilot here.

Task 5 (SQL optimization): Copilot won clearly (suggested a joinedload + composite index). MonkeyCode got the eager loading but missed the index. Local models gave generic "add an index" advice.

The setup I actually kept

After the test, I didn't pick one winner — I combined two:

  1. Local autocomplete: Continue.dev + Qwen2.5-Coder 7B via Ollama (~90ms, works offline, code never leaves my machine)
  2. Agent tasks: MonkeyCode for multi-file work and complex debugging (free quota covers my usage easily) 
# the local half, 5 minutes to set up
curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh
ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:7b
# then point Continue's config at http://localhost:11434
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Total monthly cost: $0. Productivity vs Copilot: I'd estimate 90-95%. The gap is real but small, and it's concentrated in fancy multi-file edits — not in daily coding.

Where each free tool falls short (honesty section)

  • MonkeyCode: cloud models mean latency spikes at peak hours; agent mode occasionally runs a command I didn't want
  • Continue + local 7B: weak at novel debugging (see Task 2); needs a GPU with 8GB+ VRAM to be pleasant
  • Tabby: completion quality noticeably behind Qwen2.5-Coder; self-hosting setup is more fiddly
  • Codeium: fine autocomplete, but the free chat felt a generation behind; code goes to their cloud

Verdict

  • If you have a GPU: Continue + Ollama for autocomplete + MonkeyCode for agents = 90% of Copilot for $0
  • If you don't: MonkeyCode alone is the closest free thing to a Copilot+Chat combo I've tested
  • If your employer pays: keep Copilot, this article isn't for you

The uncomfortable truth for the paid tools: the gap between $10/mo and $0 is now small enough that "privacy + free" is a legitimate choice, not just a compromise.

Have you dropped Copilot for a free stack? What did you give up — and was it worth it? If you've found a better free combo than mine, I want to hear it.

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