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Zed alternatives (2026)
Zed is a coding tool: High-performance, multiplayer code editor from the creators of Atom and Tree-sitter, with built-in AI agent editing for macOS, Linux and Windows. Pricing, as the maker states it: Open source. Its GitHub repo has 91,879 stars. We found 141 tools in the directory that do overlapping work (writing code); 106 of them are open source and 9 list a free or freemium plan. Below are the 10 closest, ranked by how many tasks and sub-tasks they share with Zed, then by GitHub stars.
- Cline (Open source): Autonomous coding agent inside VS Code with step-by-step approvals. Consider it because it is aimed at developers who want to build on it; it also covers autonomous and cloud coding agents.
- Oh My Pi (Open source): Terminal coding agent with IDE features wired in, from Stencil Labs. Consider it because it is aimed at developers who want to build on it; it also covers terminal and CLI agents.
- Superset (Source-available): Agentic IDE for orchestrating many coding agents in parallel. Consider it because it is aimed at developers who want to build on it; it also covers running many agents in parallel and multi-agent orchestration.
- Qodo (Freemium): AI code review and testing agents that work in the IDE, the terminal and pull requests to catch issues before merge. Consider it because it is aimed at developers who want to build on it; it also covers code review and testing and QA.
- 21st Magic MCP (Open source): MCP server from 21st.dev that lets Cursor, Claude Code and Windsurf search and generate React and Tailwind UI components inside the editor. Consider it because it is aimed at developers who want to build on it; it also covers MCP servers.
- AutoDev (Open source): Multi-agent development platform built on Kotlin Multiplatform for research, coding, review and data queries across IntelliJ, VS Code, CLI and more. Consider it because it is aimed at developers who want to build on it; it also covers research and reports and multi-agent orchestration.
- Jupyter AI (Open source): Official JupyterLab extension that connects AI agents and chat to notebooks. Consider it because it is aimed at developers who want to build on it; it also covers notebooks.
- OpenSumi (Open source): Framework for building AI-native IDE products, with an MCP client and agent features. Consider it because it is aimed at developers who want to build on it; it also covers agent frameworks and SDKs.
- Amp (Usage-based): Agentic coding tool for the terminal and editor. Consider it because it is a managed commercial product, if you'd rather not run it yourself; it is aimed at developers who want to build on it; it also covers terminal and CLI agents.
- Cursor (Freemium): AI code editor with an agent mode and background agents. Consider it because it does the same job with a different approach (freemium).
Zed vs alternatives at a glance
| Tool | Pricing | Open source / licence | GitHub stars | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zed | Open source | Yes | 91,879 | writing code |
| Cline | Open source | Apache License 2.0 | 70,289 | writing code |
| Oh My Pi | Open source | MIT | 35,686 | writing code, coding in the terminal |
| Superset | Source-available | Elastic License 2.0 (source-available) | 15,289 | writing code, building multi-agent systems |
| Qodo | Freemium | MIT | 13,415 | writing code, reviewing pull requests |
| 21st Magic MCP | Open source | Yes | 6,089 | writing code, research |
| AutoDev | Open source | Yes | 4,558 | writing code, coding in the terminal |
| Jupyter AI | Open source | BSD 3-Clause | 4,417 | writing code |
| OpenSumi | Open source | Yes | 3,657 | writing code, building AI agents |
| Amp | Usage-based | No | — | writing code, coding in the terminal |
| Cursor | Freemium | No | — | writing code |
More: Zed listing · All coding tools · All alternatives pages
Alternatives are picked from directory data only: same category plus shared tasks and sub-tasks. Pricing is as each maker states it; GitHub stars as recorded on each listing.