I Tried 10 AI Coding Assistants—Here's What Actually Works

Okay, I'll be honest. I went a little overboard testing AI coding tools. What started as "let me try a couple alternatives to Copilot" turned into three months of switching between different assistants, taking notes, and probably annoying my coworkers with constant "have you tried this one?" messages.

But hey, now you get the benefit of my slightly obsessive research. Here's what I actually learned.

The Big Three: Cursor, Copilot, and Claude Code

Let's start with the tools most people are choosing between.

Cursor has become my daily driver. The "Agent Mode" is genuinely impressive—you describe what you want, and it makes changes across multiple files. I've had it successfully refactor entire feature sets. The composer feature lets you have a conversation about your codebase, and it actually understands context pretty well.

The catch? It's a whole new IDE. If you're deeply invested in VS Code extensions and workflows, there's a learning curve.

GitHub Copilot is still the safe choice. The new Workspace features are solid, and the integration is seamless if you're already in VS Code. It's gotten noticeably better at understanding project context—not as good as Cursor, but close enough for most work.

Claude Code is the dark horse. If you like working in the terminal and want something that feels more like a conversation partner than an autocomplete, it's worth trying. I use it for complex refactoring tasks where I want to explain what I'm thinking and have the AI reason through it with me.

The Surprising Ones

Bolt.new and v0.dev aren't traditional coding assistants—they generate whole applications from descriptions. I was skeptical, but for quick prototypes or MVPs, they're legitimately useful. I built a working dashboard in about 20 minutes that would have taken me most of a day manually.

The code isn't always beautiful, but it works. And sometimes "works" is exactly what you need.

What I Actually Use Day-to-Day

My current setup:

• Cursor for main development work
• Claude Code for complex refactoring and debugging
• Copilot still running for simple autocomplete

Is that overkill? Probably. But different tools genuinely excel at different things.

The Honest Bits Nobody Talks About

1. All of them make mistakes. Sometimes confident, subtle mistakes that slip past code review if you're not paying attention. I've had AI introduce bugs that took hours to track down.

2. They're best for code you already understand. Using AI to write code in a language or framework you don't know is asking for trouble. You won't catch the mistakes.

3. The productivity gains are real but not magical. I'm maybe 30-40% faster, not 10x faster. Anyone claiming more is probably exaggerating.

Bottom Line

If you're a developer and not using any AI assistance, you're working harder than you need to. Start with Copilot (easiest), try Cursor if you want more power, and don't believe anyone who says one tool is obviously best for everyone.