Coding agents for small businesses: prices and real use cases

• CodingFree tier

  GitHub Copilot

  GitHub's coding assistant with an agent mode in VS Code and other editors, a CLI and cloud agents that work on GitHub issues.

  Subscription · 1 use caseFree; Pro $10/mo

• CodingFree tier

  Cursor

  An AI code editor with agents that plan and make multi-file changes, plus cloud agents and code review.

  Subscription · 2 use casesFree; Plus $8/mo

• Coding

  Claude Code

  Anthropic's coding agent for the terminal, editor and web. It reads your codebase, makes changes and runs commands.

  Subscription · 4 use casesfrom $20/mo

• CodingFree tier

  OpenAI Codex

  OpenAI's coding agent, in a desktop app, CLI, IDE extension and on the web; included with ChatGPT plans.

  Subscription · 3 use casesFree; Plus $20/mo

• CodingFree tier

  Devin

  An autonomous coding agent from Cognition, now sold with local and cloud agents (Devin Cloud) and its own SWE models.

  Subscription · 1 use caseFree; Pro $20/mo

• Coding

  Replit Agent

  A browser-based app builder: describe the app and Replit Agent builds, hosts and deploys it.

  Subscription · 1 use casefrom $20/mo

• CodingFree tier

  Lovable

  An app builder for non-coders: chat to build websites and web apps, with hosting and a database included.

  Subscription · 3 use casesFree; Pro $25/mo

• DesignFree tier

  Figma Make

  Figma's prompt-to-app tool that turns ideas and designs into working prototypes and web apps.

  Per seatFree; Professional full seat $16/mo

• CodingFree tier

  Bolt.new

  An AI app builder that turns a prompt into a working web app with hosting and databases, no code needed.

  SubscriptionFree; Pro $25/mo

• CodingFree tier

  v0

  Vercel's AI app builder that turns prompts into web apps and UIs you can deploy on Vercel.

  Per seatFree; Plus $30/user/mo

• JuCoding

  Jules

  Google's asynchronous coding agent that clones your repo to a cloud VM, plans changes and opens pull requests.

  Quote onlySee vendor

• CodingFree tier

  Kiro

  AWS's agentic IDE that works from specs: it turns a prompt into requirements, a design and tasks, then writes the code.

  Per seatFree; Pro $20/user/mo

• Coding

  Factory (Droids)

  Software-development agents (Droids) that work in your terminal, IDE or cloud to build features, review code and fix incidents.

  Subscription$20/mo

• Coding

  Augment Code

  An AI coding agent with a context engine for large codebases, in the IDE and CLI.

  Subscription$20/mo flat

Listed, not ranked: we haven't tested these hands-on, and we'd rather not rank on marketing pages. Tip: Non-coders: start with an app builder and keep the first project small. Developers: give the agent a plan and tests to check against.

• Use caseCoding

  A developer ran Google's open Gemma 4 model locally inside Codex CLI and wrote up how a coding agent performs without a cloud model.

  OpenAI CodexDaniel Vaughan (blog), via Hacker News, Apr 2026 ↗

• Use caseCoding

  A developer explains his routine of having Claude Code write a plan first, reviewing it, and only then letting it implement, keeping planning and execution separate.

  Claude CodeBoris Tane (blog), via Hacker News, Feb 2026 ↗

• Use caseCoding

  Simon Willison used Codex CLI to port the JustHTML HTML5 parser from Python to JavaScript in about 4.5 hours, using the existing html5lib test suite to check the agent's work.

  OpenAI CodexSimon Willison's Weblog, Dec 2025 ↗

• Use caseCoding

  A beginner poker player went from small Python scripts that export his hand histories to a full Laravel web app for reviewing hands, built with help from Cursor.

  CursorReilly Chase, Oct 2025 ↗

• Use caseCoding

  A data-recovery hobbyist used Claude Code to update the 25-year-old Linux ftape driver so his 1990s QIC-80 tape drive can work with a modern kernel instead of an ancient CentOS install.

  Claude CodeDmitry Brant, Sep 2025 ↗

• Use caseCoding

  A staff engineer at Sanity describes expecting Claude Code's first attempt to be mostly wrong, and how iterating with context turned it into an everyday tool.

  Claude CodeSanity blog, Sep 2025 ↗

• Use caseCoding

  Semgrep's security researchers had Claude Code and OpenAI Codex hunt for vulnerabilities in real Python web apps: both found real bugs (about 20 high-severity), but more than 80% of what they flagged were false positives.

  Claude Code, OpenAI CodexSemgrep blog, Sep 2025 ↗

• Use caseCoding

  Founder Jaleel Miles built Quicktables, a restaurant management startup, on Lovable in two months, according to Forbes.

  LovableForbes, Jul 2025 ↗

• Use caseCoding

  A developer shares the VS Code setup he uses to run GitHub Copilot's agent mode with MCP servers, custom instructions and reusable prompts so it can work through tasks with little intervention.

  GitHub CopilotAusten Stone (blog), via Hacker News, Jun 2025 ↗

• Use caseCoding

  A developer wrote a Cursor rule whose job is to write other Cursor rules, so project conventions get saved as reusable instructions for the agent.

  CursorAdithyan (blog), via Hacker News, Apr 2025 ↗

• Use caseCoding

  Answer.AI gave Devin 20 real tasks over a month: 3 succeeded, 14 failed and 3 were inconclusive, and simple-looking tasks often took days.

  DevinAnswer.AI, Jan 2025 ↗

• Use caseCodingVendor case study

  Growth marketer Sabrine Matos, a first-time founder without an engineering background, built Plinq, a women's-safety background-check app in Brazil, with Lovable in 45 days.

  LovableLovable blog, 2025 ↗

• Use caseCodingVendor case study

  Two Swedish founders built Lumoo, an AI content platform for fashion brands with virtual try-on and B2B sales tools, on Lovable; customers include Gant.

  LovableLovable blog, 2025 ↗

• Use caseCoding

  A maker built ASCII Cam, a web app that turns your webcam feed into ASCII art, with Replit Agent and published it on Replit.

  Replit AgentHacker News, Sep 2024 ↗