What are the best AI code assistants in 2024?

AI code generators are becoming a standard practice for many developers.

Not using them makes you much slower.

What are some effective AI code generators? The most popular ones include GitHub’s Copilot and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

But there are many other tools. I have listed them below, with their features, capabilities, and the companies that support them.

Let’s discover together which are the best code generators to create high-quality code with the help of artificial intelligence.

1. Github Copilot

Rating: 5/5 🥇

Price: $10 or $19 - GitHub Copilot is free for verified students, teachers, and maintainers of popular open-source projects.

Copilot uses the code that is published on GitHub and therefore has an impressive code bank. The tool detects errors in the code and recommends modifications. You can start using GitHub Copilot by installing one of the extensions in your preferred environment.

2. Replit AI

Rating: 4.5/5 🥈

Price: Free with a limited Starter plan or $120 per year with Replit Core.

Replit AI (formerly Replit Ghostwriter) is an AI programming assistance tool. The artificial intelligence is integrated into the Replit cloud development service. The tool also offers a chat to interact directly with your code by asking questions.

Replit handles many languages and is an excellent solution if you want an online IDE that offers a powerful AI to help you code.

3. Chat GPT

Rating: 4/5 🥉

Price: Free or $20 per month for the latest models

Chat GPT is well known for its power in text generation but it is even more powerful for code. OpenAI’s conversational AI has a model specifically for code. ChatGPT does not integrate directly into IDEs, so you will have to go through the site.

Want to learn more about ChatGPT? Then my article on the subject will surely interest you!

4. Codium

Rating: 4/5

Price: A free (Developer) plan that will suffice, or $19 per month with the Teams plan

Codium focuses on generating code for tests. Rather than suggesting code directly, it specializes in generating tests for your existing code. This approach gives developers more control, but requires a deeper understanding of testing.

Codium is therefore a good choice if you want an assistant to specifically code tests.

5. Code Llama

Rating: 4/5

Price: Free and open-source

Code Llama is a set of models developed by Meta (Facebook). Their models for code are powerful and allow for debugging and generating code.

Several models exist and you can access sites to communicate with the AI directly without having to download the models.

6. Cody

Rating: 3.5/5

Price: Free for 500 completions per month or $9 per month with the unlimited Pro plan

Cody is a complete code assistant. It is capable of working with an entire codebase, responding to requests, writing code, providing code explanations, locating specific components, and identifying problems then suggesting solutions. Cody works directly in VS Code with an extension.

7. Tabnine

Rating: 3/5

Price: A free (Basic) plan or $12 per month (Pro) to have the latest models

Tabnine presents itself as an AI assistant designed to speed up developers’ work while preserving code security. The AI integrates into IDEs like VSCode and offers code generation and completion, and debugging.

During my tests, Tabnine struggled to understand my instructions.

I had to battle with it to achieve somewhat satisfactory code, which I still had to finish manually.

8. AWS CodeWhisperer

Rating: 2/5

Price: Free for individual use or $19 per user with the “Professional” plan

AWS CodeWhisperer is Amazon’s AI assistant for generating code.

The tool comes last in this ranking and it’s not for nothing.

The AI seems much more limited than the other tools we’ve seen in this ranking.

I had the following problems when testing AWS’s AI tool:

• loading delays
• a too raw interface
• disappointing suggestions

CodeWhisperer comes with an Amazon Q chat which is quite limited especially in other languages than English.

AWS CodeWhisperer would need a good update before I try it again.

How will AI impact coding jobs?

As AIs advance, they’ll generate more efficient code. AI tools can currently handle repetitive tasks assigned to junior coders.

Can AI help with coding online?

Yes, Resplit Ghostwriter is a great AI coding tool that uses a cloud-based IDE accessible worldwide.

Can AI code itself?

AI models use human programming data. Some AI programming is possible, but certain aspects still require human refinement.

Can AI-generated code be detected?

Yes, various AI content detectors can identify AI-generated content, including code from AI coding tools.

Can AI create a whole app for me?

No, current AI can’t produce a flawless app. Specify requirements with coding knowledge for better responses from AI.

Which code assistant tool will you choose?

Congratulations 🎉! You now know what are the best AIs for generating code in 2024!

Which one will you choose?