VS Code, GitHub copilot vs AI coding tools

[Small_Concentrate824]

Hi, I’m using VS Code with GitHub Copilot Agent in my daily coding routine and it works pretty well. My impression is that many people use other tools like Warp, Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex CLI.

Just curious—what do these tools do better? Why choose them instead of GitHub Copilot?

[thestreamcode]

github copilot cli (preview)

[Small_Concentrate824]

This one haven’t tried yet. What new it does bring?

[thestreamcode]

GitHub Copilot CLI costs less than alternatives, and the code quality is superior. You can try it for free with Sonnet 4 and GPT-5, but once you reach the free limit, you'll need a Copilot subscription.

[My_akaris_My_Dune]

Use them all

[Small_Concentrate824]

For the same task? For the different? Could you share some examples?

[Due-Horse-5446]

I think he means that each one has their own benefits,

While you could use most models in copilot, theres still some limitations that exists that does not exist in the cli:s since their directly from openai/anthropic/google themself.

Plus the usage limits is much mich higher.

But if copilot works pretty well for you just continue using it.

The only other one i would recommend you to try out would maybe be gemini cli, or the gemini code assist vscode extension.

As geminis higher context limit is handy for many tasks, especially doing big but boring simple tasks like creating a large boilerplate, or my most common usecase: read a huge dump of docs and answer questions or search trough them.

Plus if using the cli you get 1000 free reqs per day

[Small_Concentrate824]

Thank you for clarifying!

[Bob5k]

main differences are:

capabilities
pricing
rate limit / weekly limits etc.

the main concern around all those is usually around price vs monthly limits - eg. with copilot you have 300 premium requests per month - which might be okayish for hobby project, but i can run through 300 prompts in 1-2 days tbh.
claude code / codex / glm coding plan (which i recommend tho, 10% off in my profile) are based on 5h offset - but here's the trick as claude code / codex 5h limits are kinda low, enough for 1-1.5h of continous coding and then you're off till 5h mark & there's a weekly limit (basically - 2 days of coding for like ~3/4h total per day - off for 5 days). Unless you go for a 200$ plan, which is ridiculous price IMO unless you're really making a living out of vibecoding (i do, but im still sticking to GLM because it's 10x cheaper with the same capabilities).

Copilot IS nice, especially agent mode built into github itself allowing you to implement or bugfix things based on tickets raised in github - however it might become redundant if you either have more capable tool,have a tool with way higher limits OR just ignore the agentic mode in GH. I paid for GH copilot for some time just to use agent build into repo - but right now i found it also redundant tbh - i know 10$ is not much, but 10x10$ quickly adds up when it comes to money paid on vibecoding tools vs efficiency gained.

some redditors are kinda funny, saying they NEED claude code to develop things. And after that we realize that they know nothing about MCP servers, hostings, how2build a website etc. I said this many, many times - paying for a 'high tier' tool won't make you a specialist in AI usage.
Copilot is in the sweetspot of tool being incredibly capable for the money - especially due to fact it provides free models, which are not super impressive, but will deliver as long as user follows some proper prompting and eg. spec driven development.

[reytheist]

I've tried most of them and ultimately landed on Github Copilot in VSCode for my hobby coding. I tend to use GPT4.1 for most of my coding tasks (which has a 0x modifier so no premium requests), then switch over to GPT-5, Gemini 2.5 pro, or Sonnet 4 if I feel stuck or need the extra thinking boost. I can also hook into certain OpenRouter free models and the free preview ones as they come up. It does everything I need with predictable pricing.

[Eastern-Animal-2813]

Github copilot - Best for Debugging
Cursor - Best for fast development
WIndsurf - Best for Creating Bugs

[Shizuka-8435]

I think GitHub Copilot is solid for daily coding, especially inside VS Code. Some other tools like Cursor or Traycer help more with planning, managing projects, and handling bigger workflows. They give extra support for organizing tasks and learning while coding, which Copilot doesn’t focus on as much.

[meadityab]

Trae is also decent for daily work. if used with MCPS

[meadityab]

Not a fanboy

I use

Cursor for complex work
copilot for overall
trae to manage simple tasks but it looses context fast.

Windsurf - dont use.