I Tested 6 Copilot Alternatives in VS Code and Here’s What Actually Worked

#vscode #programming #llm #ai

I’ve been using GitHub Copilot for a while now, and while it’s great, I started running into some friction: usage quotas, limited model options, and a few privacy concerns. So I decided to see what else is out there.

I tested six different Copilot-style tools inside VS Code, some free, some paid, some local, some cloud-based and ranked them based on:

• Speed
• Accuracy
• Cost
• Privacy
• Ease of setup

Here’s what I tried:

• Ollama with Llama 3.1:8b + Codellama (Free, Local)
• OpenRouter with Devstral 2 2512 (Free, Hosted)
• OpenRouter with Grok 4.1 Fast (Paid)
• GitHub Copilot with GPT-5-Mini (Free)
• Microsoft Copilot in Edge (Free)
• GitHub Copilot with Claude Opus 4.5 (Paid)

I used the Continue extension to unify the experience. It basically turns any LLM into a Copilot-style assistant inside VS Code. Some setups were surprisingly smooth. Others not so much.

My quick take:

• Best for privacy: Ollama (but it’s slow and resource-hungry)
• Best for speed: Copilot + Claude Opus
• Best for budget: Continue + Devstral 2 2512
• Best overall: Copilot + Claude Opus (if you’re okay paying)

If you’re thinking about switching from Copilot or just curious what else is out there, I hope this saves you some time.

Full write-up here:
I Tested the Best Copilot Alternatives for VS Code

Let me know what you’re using or if there’s something I should try next.