It's 2024, and coding without AI means you're lagging behind.
A bold claim? Definitely. However, the reality is that AI is revolutionizing software development at such a rapid pace that it's hard to keep pace. AI tools are providing developers of all skill levels with thrilling new opportunities, allowing for rapid ideation, creation, and iteration.
This article will guide you through the top AI coding assistant tools that will give you the sensation of having an entire team of developers at your disposal. Whether you're developing web applications, mobile apps, or data science projects, these AI-powered coding tools are transforming the way we program and expanding the horizons of software development.
What are AI coding assistants?
Before delving into details, it's important to define what AI coding assistants entail. These tools utilize machine learning algorithms to endow developers with intelligent code completion features, generate code snippets, and streamline repetitive coding tasks. With context-sensitive suggestions and autocompletion, these assistants can markedly accelerate the coding process and lighten the cognitive burden for developers, enabling them to code more swiftly and effectively.
However, that barely covers the basics. The most advanced AI coding tools surpass mere autocompletion, providing capabilities such as:
Generating code from natural language descriptions
Identifying bugs automatically and proposing solutions
Offering recommendations for code refactoring
Assisting in translating code between different programming languages
Generating real-time code explanations and documentation
Let's explore some of the prominent AI coding tools that are gaining traction in 2024.
AI tools for code completion
Code completion has come a long way from simple autocomplete features. Today's AI-driven code completion tools can complete everything from variable names, boilerplate code, advanced in line suggestions to entire code blocks, often before you've finished typing your thought.
GitHub Copilot
GitHub Copilot, an AI pair programmer tool developed by GitHub in collaboration with OpenAI, has become a go-to tool for many developers. It uses machine learning models trained on vast amounts of public code to suggest whole lines or blocks of code as you type.
GitHub Copilot Chat is a conversational assistant and is the extension of the GitHub Copilot service.
Key features:
Supports multiple programming languages and frameworks
Integrates seamlessly with popular IDEs like Visual Studio Code
Offers context-aware suggestions based on your current code and comments
Pricing: 10/month for individuals, 19/user/month for businesses, free for students and open source contributors.
Amazon CodeWhisperer
Amazon's entry into the AI coding assistant arena, CodeWhisperer, is designed to work within your existing code environment. It's particularly strong in areas where Amazon has expertise, such as cloud services and data processing.
Amazon Q Developer is a generative artificial intelligence (AI) powered conversational assistant that includes all of the features of CodeWhisperer and can help you understand, build, extend, and operate AWS applications.
Key features:
Specialized in AWS-related code suggestions
Supports different programming languages including Python code, Java, and JavaScript
Offers security scans to detect potential vulnerabilities in generated code
Pricing: Free for individual tier, $19/user/month for professional tier, custom pricing for enterprise.
Continue
Continue is an open-source AI code assistant that offers a customizable and flexible approach to AI-enhanced development. It stands out for its ability to integrate with various models and contexts, allowing you to create tailored autocomplete and chat experiences within your IDE.
Key features:
Offers inline code suggestions for single lines or entire sections
Allows attaching code or other context to ask questions about functions, files, or the entire codebase
Enables code rewriting from natural language instructions
Integrates with multiple AI models (Ollama, OpenAI, Together, Anthropic, Mistral, Azure OpenAI Service, LM Studio)
Supports various context sources (Codebase, GitLab Issues, Documentation, Methods, Confluence pages, Files)
Pricing: As an open-source tool, the core functionality is free. Custom pricing for teams (for organization-wide rollout).
Codeium
Codeium is an AI code completion tool offering intelligent code suggestions and aims to be a free alternative to GitHub Copilot. It offers many similar features and is continuously improving its capabilities.
Key features:
Free for individual use
Supports various programming languages and frameworks
Offers a web IDE for quick coding without local setup
Pricing: Free for individuals, $12/user/month for teams, custom pricing for enterprise.
AI tools for code generation
While code completion tools are great for suggesting the next line or block of code, AI code generators take it a step further by creating entire functions or even complete programs from high-level descriptions.
Claude
Claude, developed by Anthropic, is an AI assistant that excels at understanding context and generating coherent, relevant code. While not exclusively a coding tool, Claude's ability to write code from natural language descriptions is impressive.
Key features:
Can generate code in multiple programming languages
Understands complex requirements and can produce detailed implementations
Offers explanations for the generated code, making it a great learning tool
Pricing: Free web interface, $20/month for Claude Pro, custom API pricing.
ChatGPT
OpenAI's ChatGPT has taken the world by storm, and its code generation capabilities are no exception. While it's a general-purpose AI, its ability in generating code snippets is remarkable making it a great AI code generator.
Key features:
Generates code snippets or entire programs based on natural language descriptions
Supports a wide range of programming languages
Can explain code, debug issues, and suggest optimizations
Pricing: Free basic version, $20/month for Plus, custom enterprise pricing.
Cody
Cody, developed by Sourcegraph, is an AI coding assistant that's designed to work with your entire project source code, not just the file you're currently editing.
Key features:
Understands the context of your entire codebase
Generates code that's consistent with your project's style and conventions
Offers code explanation and can answer questions about your codebase
Pricing: Free for individuals, $9/user/month for Pro, custom enterprise pricing.
AI tools for design to code conversion
One of the most exciting developments in AI-assisted coding is the ability to convert designs directly into code. This can significantly speed up the coding process of turning mockups and designs into functional websites or apps.
Visual Copilot
Visual Copilot is an AI-powered Figma to code toolchain that leverages AI models and an open-source compiler, Mitosis, to transform flat designs into code hierarchies, refined by an LLM for framework and styling preferences.
Key features:
Converts Figma designs to code for multiple frameworks (React, Vue, Svelte, Angular, Qwik, Solid, React Native, HTML)
Generates responsive layouts with your choice of styling library (CSS, Tailwind, Emotion, Styled Components)
Supports component mapping to integrate with existing design systems
Offers real-time conversion and code customization options
Pricing: Free tier with 50 code generations and 4k context window, $19/user/month for 500 generations and 32k context window, $39/user/month for 2500 generations and 32k context window, custom enterprise pricing with flexible code generation limits.
AI tools for code quality and security
As AI gets better at generating code, it's also improving at analyzing code for potential issues. These tools help maintain code quality and catch security vulnerabilities early in the development process.
Snyk
Snyk is an AI-powered security platform that helps developers find and fix vulnerabilities in their code and dependencies. In 2020, Snyk acquired DeepCode, enhancing its capabilities with advanced AI-driven code analysis.
Key features:
Integrates with your development workflow
Provides real-time alerts for newly discovered vulnerabilities
Offers automated fix suggestions for identified issues
Integrates with popular IDEs and CI/CD pipelines
Offers explanations for each identified issue
Pricing: Free for individuals, $25/product/month for teams, custom enterprise pricing.
AI tools for collaborative coding
AI is not just changing how we write code, but also how we collaborate on coding projects. These tools are enhancing team productivity and communication.
Pieces for Developers
Pieces for Developers is an AI tool that helps developers save, share, and reuse code snippets more efficiently.
Key features:
Uses AI to automatically tag and categorize saved code snippets
Suggests relevant snippets based on your current coding context
Facilitates easy sharing of code snippets among team members
Pricing: Currently free for all users, paid plans to be introduced in the future
Otter.ai
While not strictly a coding tool, Otter.ai's AI-powered transcription and note-taking capabilities can be invaluable for development teams. It can transcribe team meetings, code reviews, and brainstorming sessions, making it easier to document decisions and action items.
Key features:
Real-time transcription of meetings
Automatic generation of meeting summaries
Searchable transcripts for easy reference
Pricing: Free basic tier, 16.99/month for Pro, 30/user/month for Business, custom enterprise pricing.
AI-enhanced IDEs
While standalone AI coding tools are powerful, integrating AI directly into your development environment can streamline your workflow even further.
Cursor
Cursor is a new IDE built from the ground up with AI integration in mind. It's essentially a fork of VS Code with powerful AI features baked in.
Key features:
Built-in AI chat for asking questions about your code
AI-powered code completion and generation
Ability to edit multiple files simultaneously with AI assistance
Automatic bug fixing and code refactoring suggestions
Pricing: Free hobby tier, $20/month for Pro, $40/user/month for Business
Learn more about Cursor in our ultimate introduction to Cursor for web development.
Visual Studio Code with AI Extensions
Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a highly popular, free, open-source IDE that supports a wide range of programming languages. While not inherently AI-powered, its extensive marketplace of extensions allows for easy integration of various AI coding tools.
Key features:
Support for GitHub Copilot, GitHub Copilot Chat and other AI coding assistants through extensions
Customizable AI-enhanced coding experience
Large community and frequent updates
Pricing: VS Code itself is free. Pricing for AI extensions varies (e.g., GitHub Copilot is $10/month).
The future of AI-assisted programming
While current AI coding assistants have shown a lot of promise in providing intelligent code completions and generating code from natural language descriptions, they often struggle with producing fully functional code. Looking ahead, we're likely to see a shift towards specialized AI agents working in concert with developers to tackle specific programming tasks.
Micro Agent
Micro Agent is an open-source tool that aims to deliver the benefits of AI-assisted coding while mitigating the problems of unreliable code generation. It uses unit tests as guardrails to generate not just high quality code but also bug-free code quickly.
Key features:
Generates unit tests based on natural language descriptions
Writes code that passes the generated tests
Automatically iterates until all tests pass to ensure error free code generation
Supports multiple languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, and Python
Conclusion
The AI coding tools available in 2024 are nothing short of revolutionary. They're changing the way we approach software development, making it faster, more efficient, and in many ways, more accessible. From code completion, code to code translation, generation to design conversion and quality assurance, AI is touching every aspect of the development process.
However, it's important to remember that these tools are just that—tools. They're here to augment human creativity and problem-solving skills, not replace them. The most successful developers will be those who learn to leverage these AI assistants effectively, using them to handle routine tasks while focusing their own efforts on higher-level design, architecture, and innovation.
As we continue to push the boundaries of what's possible with AI in software development, one thing is clear: the future of coding is here, and it's more exciting than ever.