Coding & Engineering: Price Ladder (2026) — entry prices by tier
The published entry prices of all 55 recorded Coding & Engineering tools, grouped by billing unit (monthly, per user, one-time and the rest of the recorded units), with each group's price range, the channel's pricing.model distribution, and how each group's recorded Value-for-Money scores compare. Prices are compared only within the same billing unit — entry prices with different units are never placed on one scale.
Entry-Price Ladder by Billing Unit
| Billing unit (recorded) | Tools | Entry price range | Median entry | Median Value-for-Money |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly unit="mo" | 39 | $0 – $49 | $18.5 | 78 |
| Per user unit="user" | 16 | $0 – $59 | $19 | 78 |
Ranges and medians are computed within each billing unit only. The highest median recorded Value-for-Money currently sits in the "Monthly" group (78/100) — a statement about recorded rubric scores, not a price-performance claim across units.
Pricing-Model Distribution
| pricing.model (recorded) | Tools | Median overall | Median Value-for-Money | Tools |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| freemium | 37 | 81.6 | 78 | CUCursorGIGitHub CopilotZEZedOPOpenAI CodexAMAmazon Q DeveloperKIKiloWIWindsurfCLClineJEJetBrains AI AssistantSOSourceryCOCodeRabbitKOKorbit AITATabbyTATabnineCOContinueGRGreptileAMAmpWAWarpGRGraphiteOPOpenHandsSUSupermavenRERefact.aiSNSnyk CodePOPoolsideJUJulesQOQodanaRORoomoteDEDevinSWSweepCOCodeBuddyELEllipsisTOTongyi LingmaCOCodeGeeXBABaidu ComateCOCodeflashMUMutable AIDODouble |
| subscription | 11 | 80.4 | 72 | |
| free | 4 | 80.9 | 92 | |
| usage | 3 | 81.8 | 80 |
Per-Tool Entry Prices (Complete Record)
| Tool | Overall | pricing.model | Entry price (recorded) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cursor | 89.2 | freemium | $20 / mo |
| GitHub Copilot | 88.1 | freemium | $10 / mo |
| Claude Code | 86.1 | subscription | $17 / mo |
| Zed | 86.1 | freemium | $10 / mo |
| Aider | 86.0 | free | $0 / mo |
| OpenAI Codex | 84.6 | freemium | $20 / mo |
| Amazon Q Developer | 84.3 | freemium | $19 / user |
| Trae | 84.2 | free | $0 / mo |
| Kilo | 84.0 | freemium | $15 / user |
| Bito AI | 83.9 | subscription | $15 / user |
| Windsurf | 83.9 | freemium | not recorded |
| Cline | 83.7 | freemium | $0 / user |
| JetBrains AI Assistant | 83.4 | freemium | $10 / user |
| Sourcery | 83.4 | freemium | $12 / user |
| CodeRabbit | 83.2 | freemium | $24 / user |
| Korbit AI | 82.8 | freemium | $12 / user |
| Tabby | 82.6 | freemium | $19 / user |
| Tabnine | 82.5 | freemium | $39 / user |
| Continue | 82.3 | freemium | not recorded |
| Greptile | 82.2 | freemium | $30 / user |
| Amp | 82.1 | freemium | $20 / mo |
| Codestral | 82.0 | usage | not recorded |
| Warp | 81.9 | freemium | $20 / mo |
| Replit Agent | 81.8 | usage | not recorded |
| Zencoder | 81.7 | subscription | $40 / user |
| Graphite | 81.6 | freemium | $20 / user |
| OpenHands | 81.5 | freemium | not recorded |
| Supermaven | 81.4 | freemium | $10 / mo |
| Refact.ai | 81.2 | freemium | $10 / mo |
| Augment Code | 80.7 | subscription | $20 / mo |
| Qodo | 80.6 | subscription | $30 / mo |
| Snyk Code | 80.6 | freemium | $25 / user |
| Moderne | 80.4 | subscription | not recorded |
| Poolside | 80.4 | freemium | not recorded |
| Jules | 79.7 | freemium | $19.99 / mo |
| Sourcegraph Cody | 79.7 | subscription | $59 / user |
| Sonar AI Code Assurance | 79.5 | subscription | not recorded |
| Qodana | 79.4 | freemium | not recorded |
| Roomote | 79.3 | freemium | $49 / mo |
| Devin | 78.5 | freemium | $20 / mo |
| Sweep | 77.8 | freemium | $10 / mo |
| CodeBuddy | 77.6 | freemium | not recorded |
| Ellipsis | 77.6 | freemium | not recorded |
| Grit | 77.6 | free | not recorded |
| Tongyi Lingma | 77.6 | freemium | not recorded |
| Pieces for Developers | 77.6 | subscription | $18.99 / user |
| CodeGeeX | 77.1 | freemium | not recorded |
| Baidu Comate | 76.7 | freemium | not recorded |
| Codeflash | 76.4 | freemium | not recorded |
| Mutable AI | 76.1 | freemium | not recorded |
| Double | 75.1 | freemium | not recorded |
| Charlie | 73.2 | subscription | not recorded |
| Blackbox AI | 72.4 | usage | not recorded |
| Magic | 71.6 | subscription | not recorded |
| Codegen | 70.9 | free | $0 / mo |
Methodology — all figures read only published archives (data/tools, dimsVersion v2-5dim, snapshots 2026-09-06 – 2026-09-17; 55 coding tools). The composite is the published deterministic weighting (quality 0.25 + features 0.20 + usability 0.15 + performance 0.20 + value 0.20); this page never recomputes or re-weights recorded scores, and medians use the standard median (middle element, or mean of the two middle elements rounded to 1 decimal). Entry prices are compared only within the same billing unit. No placement on this page is sponsored or affiliate-ranked; ordering is by recorded archive scores only.