82
Stack Score
Best for
Developers who want an agentic coding extension inside VS Code with full control over which model is doing the work.
At a glance
- Pricing
- free
- Setup time
- 15 minutes
- Learning curve
- medium
- Last verified
- 5/19/2026
What we love
- ✓Cleanest open-source alternative to Cursor's agent mode
- ✓Approval gates make it safe to run on production codebases
- ✓BYO key keeps you in control of which model you're paying for
Where it falls short
- −You pay every token directly — bigger tasks add up fast
- −Less polished onboarding than commercial competitors
- −Heavy reliance on the underlying model — Cline is only as good as the API key behind it
Pricing
✓ Pricing verified Jun 21, 20262 tiers
Open Source
$0
forever
- ✓VS Code Extension
- ✓CLI
- ✓Secure Client-Side Architecture
- ✓Inference at Cost or BYOK
- ✓MCP Marketplace
Enterprise
Custom
annual contract
- ✓JetBrains Extension
- ✓SSO and SLA
- ✓Dedicated Support
- ✓Centralized Billing
- ✓Role Based Access Control
Why we picked it
The OSS alternative to Cursor's agent. Fewer guardrails but you control everything.
Overview
VS Code extension that runs as an autonomous agent — reads your codebase, executes commands, edits files. BYOK for Claude / OpenAI / others.
Key features
- ●VS Code extension — autonomous agent for coding tasks
- ●Plan-then-execute loop with human checkpoints before file writes
- ●Terminal command execution with approval gates
- ●BYO model: Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, local Ollama
- ●Browser-control mode for testing the app it just built
- ●Open source — Apache 2.0 license, no telemetry by default
Best use cases
Self-hosted Cursor alternative
Privacy-conscious teams who want agentic AI coding without sending code to a SaaS vendor.
BYO-key cost control
Devs who already have a Claude or OpenAI key and don't want a second subscription.
Custom workflow integration
Use Cline's open codebase as a starting point for an internal AI coding assistant.
Integrations
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