Aider

Who it is for

For developers and individuals. It runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. License: Apache-2.0. It is in the DevOps group.

What you pay

Free plan: The Apache-2.0 license and the PyPI package do not list a fee for Aider. You pay the model provider. We have not checked those prices. There is no hosted price on file. Run it yourself: Easy. The GitHub Copilot doc says to install with pip and aider-install, then run aider in a project directory. It runs on the computer where you installed it.

How to switch

• Compared with Jules. Its price on file: The homepage lists task caps and does not print a dollar price. Jules winds down on December 31, 2026. Not checked.

  What you give up: a task that runs on a schedule, environment variables for the task, and start a task from a GitHub issue. You only get part of: a session you can leave and come back to, works with a GitHub repository, and opens a branch or a pull request, and 1 more.

  Free alternatives to Jules

How close is it?

A full score means it matches our checklist. It is not a drop-in replacement.

• 45
  Instead of Jules8 of 8 checked features. A full score means it matches our checklist. It is not a drop-in replacement.What you give up: a task that runs on a schedule, environment variables for the task, and start a task from a GitHub issue. You only get part of: a session you can leave and come back to, works with a GitHub repository, and opens a branch or a pull request, and 1 more.The scripting docs take one natural-language message, edit the files, and commit. The git docs describe the same edits from an interactive chat.The git docs describe a terminal chat with /undo. The scripting docs run one message and exit. They do not describe a session that keeps running on a server after you leave.The git docs say aider works inside a git repository, which can be a GitHub clone. The GitHub page is about using Copilot as a model API, not a connection to your repositories.Each edit is committed, and the git docs say you can keep a series of changes on a branch. They do not describe opening a pull request.The docs index checked on November 5, 2026 has scripting and a chat. It does not have a scheduler. A shell loop in the scripting doc is something you start yourself.The conventions doc says you write CONVENTIONS.md and load it with the chat, including from .aider.conf.yml. That file is yours. Aider does not extract memories from old tasks.The scripting page lists environment variables for aider's own flags, such as AIDER_MESSAGE. It does not describe environment variables for the project task.The docs checked do not start a task from a GitHub issue. The GitHub page is a Copilot model setup.

Related alternatives

DevOps alternatives

• Free alternatives to Bitbucket
• Free alternatives to Conductor
• Free alternatives to GitHub
• Free alternatives to Jules
• Free alternatives to Ollama Cloud
• Free alternatives to Ona

Free apps in this group

• Bugsink: A smaller Sentry-compatible error store.
• Cline: An Apache-2.0 coding agent for VS Code and the terminal. No inline autocomplete.
• Continue: An Apache-2.0 IDE assistant. The repository is read-only after the Cursor acquisition.
• cState: A Hugo status page. Incidents are markdown files.
• Cursor: A coding editor with Tab autocomplete and an agent. Free is limited. The code is closed.
• Devin: The desktop editor formerly sold as Windsurf. Free includes Tab. The code is closed.
• Errbit: An older Airbrake-compatible error catcher.
• Forgejo: A community forge, GPL-3.0 since v9.
• Gatus: A health dashboard with a status page in the config file.
• Gitea: A lightweight Git forge.
• GitHub Copilot: GitHub's coding assistant. Free is capped. The code is not public.
• GitLab Community Edition: The MIT edition of GitLab, without EE.
• GlitchTip: Error tracking compatible with Sentry SDKs.
• Highlight: Session replay and errors, with a split license.
• Kener: A status page with incidents, maintenance, and email subscriptions.
• llama.cpp: LLM inference in C and C++. The license is MIT. llama-server speaks an OpenAI-style API.
• Ollama: Run open models on your own computer. The license is MIT.
• OneUptime: Status pages plus monitors, incidents, and on-call.
• OpenCode: A terminal and desktop coding agent that can open a GitHub pull request.
• OpenHands: Agent Canvas, a self-hosted control center for coding agents.
• Radicle: A peer-to-peer code forge.
• SigNoz: Traces, metrics, and logs in one app.
• SourceHut: Git hosting composed of small services.
• Tabby: A self-hosted completion server. Community is free for up to 5 users.
• Uptime Kuma: Uptime checks, with a public status page of those checks.
• vLLM: An Apache-2.0 model server with an OpenAI-compatible API.

Where we looked

• https://aider.chat/docs/git.html
• https://aider.chat/docs/usage/conventions.html
• https://aider.chat/docs/scripting.html
• https://aider.chat/docs/llms/github.html
• https://github.com/Aider-AI/aider/releases
• https://github.com/Aider-AI/aider/blob/main/LICENSE.txt
• https://pypi.org/pypi/aider-chat/json