The best GitHub Copilot alternatives in 2026

GitHub Copilot, from GitHub, works in editors including Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio and JetBrains IDEs, on GitHub.com and in the terminal, and its page lists a Free plan, for getting started. This guide is for teams that want an agent to take on work across a whole repository: what to look for, why we put DCode first, and the other agents worth a look, each described from its maker's pages. We build DCode, so read our pick as our view.

What should a team look for in a GitHub Copilot alternative?

• Context from the whole repository. The types, the dependencies and every file a change touches, read before anything is edited.
• A task, not a line. One request carried from a plan to a tested change.
• Parallel work on large changes. Independent parts handed to several agents at once.
• Reach outside the editor. A browser to test a web app, the screen for desktop software, MCP for internal tools.
• The desktop and the terminal. The same agent in an app and on the command line, with one account.
• A clear way to pay. A free start, then a plan or pay-as-you-go credits.

Why do we put DCode first?

Because DCode starts from the repository, not from the open file. Before it changes anything, it indexes the repository tree, type definitions and dependency graph, so a change lands in its full context. Give it one prompt and it plans the change, edits files across the project, runs your compilers, linters and tests in your local terminal, repairs what it broke and reports what was verified.

A crew is how DCode takes a large change. When a task has parts that do not depend on each other, up to 24 agents work on them in parallel, and the Crew dock under the chat header shows every agent side by side, with live counts and the Plan, Work and Review stages. A crew is counted in tokens only, with no separate charge per agent; our story on crews explains how the work is split.

What else does DCode bring to a team's work?

• Browser Use. DCode opens pages in its own built-in browser, reads them, clicks and types, so it can try the web app it just changed. Its password manager keeps passwords on your computer and fills them in itself, never showing them to the model.
• Computer Use. When the work leaves the browser, DCode sees the screen and works desktop apps on Windows and macOS. Browser Use and Computer Use are both on from a fresh install.
• Your yes when it matters. You choose how much DCode does on its own, and posting, sending, buying and deleting on a website ask you first.
• MCP for your own tools. DCode speaks the Model Context Protocol natively, so it can query a database, fetch GitHub issues, read live API documentation or call an internal developer tool.
• A checked catalog. Skills, MCP servers and plugins sync from our public catalog, and every file DCode downloads is checked against the size and file hash the catalog lists, as our story on the catalog describes.
• The CLI. The same agent on the command line, on Windows, macOS and Linux, in a workspace that fills the terminal, with a live Crew panel and the same account.

Which model runs DCode?

DCode runs on the Raven models, Raven Flash for fast agentic work and Raven Max for deep architectural refactors, at the thinking level you set: Off, Low, Standard or High. In our published results, company-reported and evaluated with maximum reasoning effort, Raven Flash placed first among the fast models it is compared with on Terminal Bench 4.0, autonomous software engineering in a live terminal, at 34.1, 9.5 points ahead of GPT-5.6 Terra.

Raven Max placed first on three of the eight tests among the models it is compared with, Terminal Bench 4.0 and Agent's Last Exam among them. Where another model leads, we say so: on DeepSWE v1.1, GPT-5.6 Terra placed first among the fast models and GPT-5.6 Sol among the models Raven Max is compared with. The full tables are in our report on Raven Flash and our report on Raven Max.

What does DCode cost?

DCode is a free download for Windows x64 and ARM64 and for macOS on Apple silicon and Intel. Each person's DCode draws on their plan, a Raven plan or the DCode Coding Plan at $29 a month, or on prepaid API credits at per-token prices, and the switch is in Settings. With credits, we set up the API key for DCode on the account, so there is nothing to paste; our story on plan or credits walks through both. Organizations that need dedicated Canadian compute instances, custom SLAs or invoicing can ask us for a tailored deployment.

Which other agents are worth a look?

Each is described here only as its maker describes it, on the page linked.

• Claude Code, from Anthropic, is in its own words an agentic coding tool that reads your codebase, edits files and runs commands, on several surfaces: the terminal, IDE extensions, a desktop app and the web.
• OpenAI Codex is OpenAI's coding agent, used across ChatGPT, your editor and the terminal and connected by a ChatGPT account; the Codex CLI runs locally on your computer.
• Cursor, from Anysphere, offers its desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux on its download page, and its agent also runs in the terminal through the Cursor CLI.
• Devin Desktop, from Cognition, is the new name Cognition gave Windsurf on June 2, 2026, and its download page offers it for macOS, Windows and Linux.

Why we side with the agent over autocomplete is in our comparison of DCode, Cursor and Copilot. For the terminal, see our guide to Claude Code alternatives, and for agents you run on your own computer, our guide to Devin alternatives.

How do I switch?

1. Download DCode for Windows or macOS from the download page, or install the CLI with one line or from npm.
2. Sign in with Google or Apple; your Raven plan works in DCode from the start.
3. Open the repository your team knows best and hand DCode a change that spans several files.
4. Choose your plan or credits in Settings, and Raven Flash or Raven Max for the job.

Everything DCode does is on the DCode page, and plans are on the pricing page. The install guide, the Crew guide and the billing guide go further.

Product names are trademarks of their owners and are used here only to identify the products.