8 Best Amp Alternatives (2026)

The closest alternatives to Amp are Aider, Claude Code, Cline and Codex CLI, with 4 more below. Each shares a comparison category with it, so every rationale here names both tools' real values. Amp is marked No on BYOK, where Claude Code records Yes, usually where a switch starts.

Website Amp logo & brand assets Coding agents

Why do people look for Amp alternatives?

Most people searching for Amp alternatives are not shopping, they already run it and something has stopped fitting.
That something is usually a specific number rather than a feeling.
This page starts from the fields where Amp genuinely trails the rosters it appears in, and only then covers the reasons that never show up in a table.

The measured reasons.

BYOK, No. Claude Code records Yes.
Pricing model, opaque credits, 14th of 16. opencode records BYOK tokens only.
Model breadth, no model choice, 15th of 16. opencode records any provider / router.
Local models, No. Codex CLI records Yes.
Opens PRs, No. Claude Code records Yes.

Any one of those is enough on its own if you sized your architecture around it.
None of them is enough if you didn't, which is why the list is short and specific rather than a general case against Amp.

The reasons that never make it into a table.

A price rise after a funding round.
A licence change that turns a self-host into a subscription.
A region you now need and they do not have.
An acquisition.
A support experience that quietly degrades.
None of those are fields, and all of them move teams, which is why every entry below links back to Coding agents, where the full field set and its sources live.
The ones we catch get logged on the Amp timeline.

How the shortlist is ordered.

Every tool below shares at least one comparison category with Amp, sorted by how many categories the two overlap in.
There is no editorial ranking, no sponsorship and no affiliate link, the order is the overlap count.
The rationale under each is generated from the two tools' own cells, so it names real values rather than adjectives.

1.Aider

Aider, Minimal terminal pair-programmer with a tree-sitter repo map and automatic git commits.
It meets Amp in Coding agents.
It is ahead on BYOK (Yes against No), Model breadth (any provider / router against no model choice) and Licence (Apache-2.0 against proprietary).
What you give up: MCP (No, where Amp records Yes) and Subagents (No, where Amp records Yes).
Best for scripted, repeatable edits where you want a git commit per change.
The most auditable harness here, but visibly slowed while the category sprinted past.

Where Aider and Amp actually differ

BYOK: YesAmp: No
MCP: NoAmp: Yes
Subagents: NoAmp: Yes
Model breadth: any provider / routerAmp: no model choice
Licence: Apache-2.0Amp: proprietary
Token markup: NoAmp: Yes

Aider profile Compare in Coding agents

2.Claude Code

Claude Code, Anthropic's terminal-first agent, with IDE, web and GitHub Action surfaces.
It meets Amp in Coding agents.
It is ahead on Opens PRs (Yes against No), BYOK (Yes against No) and Permissions (allowlist + OS sandbox against granular allowlist).
What you give up: Token markup (No, where Amp records Yes) and Entry price ($20 /seat/mo, where Amp records $0 /seat/mo).
Best for terminal-native teams who want subagents and hooks without building them.
The most complete extensibility surface here, at the cost of lock-in to one model vendor.

Where Claude Code and Amp actually differ

Opens PRs: YesAmp: No
BYOK: YesAmp: No
Token markup: NoAmp: Yes
Permissions: allowlist + OS sandboxAmp: granular allowlist
Pricing model: subscription + token overageAmp: opaque credits
Model breadth: one vendor + custom endpointAmp: no model choice

Claude Code profile Compare in Coding agents

3.Cline

Cline, Open-source VS Code and JetBrains agent built around an explicit plan/act split.
It meets Amp in Coding agents.
It is ahead on BYOK (Yes against No), Model breadth (any provider / router against no model choice) and Licence (Apache-2.0 against proprietary).
What you give up: Subagents (No, where Amp records Yes) and Token markup (No, where Amp records Yes).
Best for VS Code and JetBrains teams who want BYOK without leaving the IDE.
The clearest plan/act interaction and safest BYOK default, but it stays inside the editor.

Where Cline and Amp actually differ

BYOK: YesAmp: No
Subagents: NoAmp: Yes
Model breadth: any provider / routerAmp: no model choice
Licence: Apache-2.0Amp: proprietary
Token markup: NoAmp: Yes
Local models: YesAmp: No

Cline profile Compare in Coding agents

4.Codex CLI

Codex CLI, OpenAI's open-source Rust agent, with the strongest local sandboxing on this page.
It meets Amp in Coding agents.
It is ahead on Opens PRs (Yes against No), BYOK (Yes against No) and Licence (Apache-2.0 against proprietary).
What you give up: Subagents (No, where Amp records Yes) and Token markup (No, where Amp records Yes).
Best for unattended local runs where a real OS sandbox is non-negotiable.
The best local containment story here, but weaker than Claude Code on orchestration primitives.

Where Codex CLI and Amp actually differ

Opens PRs: YesAmp: No
BYOK: YesAmp: No
Subagents: NoAmp: Yes
Licence: Apache-2.0Amp: proprietary
Token markup: NoAmp: Yes
Local models: YesAmp: No

Codex CLI profile Compare in Coding agents

5.Cursor

Cursor, VS Code fork with a real codebase index, background cloud agents and a CLI.
It meets Amp in Coding agents.
It is ahead on Opens PRs (Yes against No), Model breadth (multi-vendor against no model choice) and BYOK (Partial against No).
What you give up: Subagents (Partial, where Amp records Yes) and Token markup (Partial, where Amp records Yes).
Best for large monorepos where agentic grep runs out of context before it finds anything.
A real persistent codebase index inside the editor you review in, paid for in lock-in.

Where Cursor and Amp actually differ

Opens PRs: YesAmp: No
Model breadth: multi-vendorAmp: no model choice
BYOK: PartialAmp: No
Permissions: allowlist + OS sandboxAmp: granular allowlist
Pricing model: subscription + token overageAmp: opaque credits
Repo indexing: embeddings indexAmp: agentic grep

Cursor profile Compare in Coding agents

6.Devin

Devin, Fully delegated cloud engineer: file a task in Slack or the web app, get a PR back.
It meets Amp in Coding agents.
It is ahead on Opens PRs (Yes against No), Repo indexing (hybrid index + agentic against agentic grep) and Permissions (vendor-hosted sandbox against granular allowlist).
What you give up: Subagents (No, where Amp records Yes) and Checkpoint & undo (No, where Amp records Partial).
Best for backlogs of small, well-specified tickets nobody wants to pick up.
The clearest full delegation, great for well-specified tickets, but ACU pricing bills you afterwards.

Where Devin and Amp actually differ

Opens PRs: YesAmp: No
Subagents: NoAmp: Yes
Repo indexing: hybrid index + agenticAmp: agentic grep
Checkpoint & undo: NoAmp: Partial
Permissions: vendor-hosted sandboxAmp: granular allowlist
Headless / CI: PartialAmp: Yes

Devin profile Compare in Coding agents

7.DIY harness

DIY harness, Your own loop over a model API with an agent SDK, the build-it-yourself reference point.
It meets Amp in Coding agents.
It is ahead on BYOK (Yes against No), Model breadth (any provider / router against no model choice) and Local models (Yes against No).
What you give up: Token markup (No, where Amp records Yes) and Plan mode (No, where Amp records Partial).
Best for one repeated task with a known shape and a tight tool surface.
Right for narrow, repeated jobs, wrong for open-ended engineering.
Note that we carry DIY harness as the do-it-yourself baseline in that roster, the "what if we just ran this ourselves" reference point.
The honest answer is usually that it is cheaper and considerably more work.

Where DIY harness and Amp actually differ

BYOK: YesAmp: No
Model breadth: any provider / routerAmp: no model choice
Token markup: NoAmp: Yes
Local models: YesAmp: No
Pricing model: BYOK tokens onlyAmp: opaque credits
Opens PRs: PartialAmp: No

DIY harness profile Compare in Coding agents

8.Gemini CLI

Gemini CLI, Apache-2.0 terminal agent from Google with an unusually generous free tier.
It meets Amp in Coding agents.
It is ahead on BYOK (Yes against No), Licence (Apache-2.0 against proprietary) and Opens PRs (Partial against No).
What you give up: Token markup (No, where Amp records Yes) and Subagents (Partial, where Amp records Yes).
Best for solo developers and students who want daily agent use at zero cost.
The cheapest credible daily agent, a step behind on orchestration, with its PR path in a separate Action.

Where Gemini CLI and Amp actually differ

BYOK: YesAmp: No
Licence: Apache-2.0Amp: proprietary
Token markup: NoAmp: Yes
Opens PRs: PartialAmp: No
Permissions: allowlist + OS sandboxAmp: granular allowlist
Pricing model: subscription + token overageAmp: opaque credits

Gemini CLI profile Compare in Coding agents

How this list was built

There is no editorial ranking on this page and no sponsorship behind it. The order is mechanical: every tool that shares a comparison category with Amp, sorted by how many categories the two overlap in. A tool that meets Amp in three rosters sits above one that meets it in a single roster, because more overlap means the comparison is more like-for-like.

The rationale under each entry is composed from the two tools' own cells. Where they differ on a field we score, the sentence names both values and the unit. Where they don't differ, it says so instead of manufacturing a distinction, which is why some entries are short.

Values, sources and verification dates all live on the category tables: Coding agents. If a figure here disagrees with a vendor's current pricing page, the vendor is right and we are stale.

Still deciding whether to move at all? The Amp profile has the when-to-use and when-not-to-use blocks, and the Amp timeline has the dated changes that usually trigger a migration.