10 Best AI Tools for Developers: Future-Proof Your Coding Process

We all know that coding is not a quick process. But with the help of AI tools, it makes the process faster and easier, whether you are a beginner or a senior developer. So I would suggest that you try at least one of these tools to increase your productivity.

Although, as with all other AI tools, none of them are perfect, so you will find some errors and inaccuracies, so use them at your discretion and always double-check the code you get from AI tools.

Here is the list of all the AI tools that can be used by developers of all kinds:

1. Cursor.sh
2. Codium AI
3. ChatGPT
4. GitHub Copilot
5. AskCodi
6. Tabnine
7. Amazon CodeWhisperer
8. Codiga
9. Replit
10. CodeBuddy

What is an AI tool for developers?

An AI tool for developers is a software program that utilizes artificial intelligence to assist them in various aspects of the software development process. These tools can offer a range of functionalities.

How can AI help developers?

• Automation: AI-powered tools can automate tedious tasks like code reviews, testing, and bug fixing, freeing up developers’ time for more creative and strategic work.
• Code Generation: Generative AI models can suggest code snippets, complete functions, or even generate entire pieces of code based on natural language instructions, significantly reducing development time.
• Testing: AI can run more comprehensive and diverse test scenarios, identifying potential issues that manual testing might miss, leading to more robust and reliable software.
• Code Analysis: AI can analyze code and project data to predict potential problems and suggest solutions before they become critical, preventing costly delays and improving software quality.
• Natural Language Programming: Developers can use natural language to communicate with AI tools, making development more intuitive and accessible, especially for beginners.

Do software developers use AI?

Yes, many software developers are increasingly using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in their work. I would strongly recommend that you try to use AI in your coding, as it will give you an edge over developers who do not use AI tools, and also make you more attractive on the job market.

Best AI Coding Tools:

Cursor.sh

Cursor is an AI-powered code editor designed to increase the speed and efficiency of software development. It integrates AI to help write, edit, and understand code, allowing for a more intuitive programming experience. 

The tool supports natural language input for code changes, provides direct links to documentation and code definitions, and has a built-in copilot for predictive coding assistance. Privacy is a key focus, with options to keep code private and not stored on servers.

Key Features:

• AI-Enhanced Coding: Cursor leverages AI to understand and assist with your project, offering tailored answers and suggestions based on your codebase.
• Efficient Navigation and Editing: The editor allows for quick referencing of documentation and files, and enables editing code through natural language prompts.
• Copilot Features: Includes Copilot++, an enhanced autocomplete system that predicts and suggests coding changes and completions, improving coding speed.
• Privacy and Customization: Ensures code privacy with a special mode that prevents code storage on servers, and offers one-click migration of VSCode extensions for a personalized experience.

Pricing:

• Basic Plan: Free, includes limited uses of GPT-4 and GPT-3.5, and AI-powered code editing features.
• Pro Plan: $20/month, offers more extensive use of GPT-4, unlimited slow GPT-4 uses, and unlimited Copilot++ completions.
• Business Plan: $40/user/month, includes all Pro features plus centralized billing and enhanced privacy options.

Codium AI

Codium is an innovative solution in code generation, specifically designed for coding contests. It includes a range of products such as Codiumate, a versatile IDE plugin, PR-Agent, a Git plugin designed to facilitate pull request analysis, and the innovative CodiumAI API. 

The platform is characterized by tools such as Coding-Agent, which helps to generate meaningful tests, code explanations, and behavior coverage, significantly increasing developer efficiency.

Key Features:

• IDE and Git Integration: Codiumate and PR-Agent seamlessly integrate with popular IDEs and Git platforms, offering smart code analysis and suggestions directly where developers work.
• Test Generation: CodiumAI excels in creating substantial tests that provide deep insights into code behavior, aiding in detecting edge cases and enhancing code reliability.
• AI-Assisted Code Review: PR-Agent revolutionizes pull request reviews with its AI-driven analysis, making the review process more efficient and less cumbersome.
• Language Support: AlphaCodium supports a wide range of programming languages and git code hosting services, ensuring broad applicability and utility.

Pricing:

• Developer Plan: Free, includes unit and component tests generation, AI code review, and community support.
• Teams Plan: $19 per user per month, with additional features like pre-pull request review and standard support.
• Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing for tailored solutions including enterprise SSO and priority support.

ChatGPT 

You probably knew that ChatGPT was on this list. While it is a great tool for content creation or even research, it is also one of the best AI tools for developers. You cannot go wrong with ChatGPT, you just need to prepare better prompts sometimes or you can use custom GPTs.

Also if you want an offline ChatGPT I would consider checking out GPT4All. Some people are also toying with Gemini if it comes close to ChatGPT, but it looks like you will not see any massive improvement while using Gemini.

Key features:

• Advanced language models: ChatGPT’s language models are trained on large datasets, giving it the ability to understand and generate nuanced, human-like text, making it ideal for a wide range of language processing tasks.
• Customization and fine-tuning: Developers can tailor ChatGPT to specific needs and fine-tune it with domain-specific data to improve relevance and accuracy for specific applications.
• Scalability: Designed to handle high volumes of requests, ChatGPT can scale to meet the needs of applications while maintaining performance and reliability.
• Integration capabilities: ChatGPT can be easily integrated into existing systems and applications, providing flexibility and ease of use for developers looking to add AI capabilities to their software.

Pricing:

• Free tier with limited usage
• ChatGPT Plus: $19 per month

GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot is an AI coding assistant that improves developer workflow and increases productivity. It integrates smoothly with several leading editors and is uniquely integrated into GitHub, setting it apart from other AI coding tools. 

Providing contextual assistance throughout the software development lifecycle, GitHub Copilot helps with code completion, debugging, and chat support in the IDE, improving code quality and developer confidence. Its widespread adoption, including by Fortune 500 companies, underscores its status as an essential tool in modern software development.

Key Features:

• Contextual Code Assistance: GitHub Copilot provides real-time, context-aware coding support, offering suggestions as developers type and translating natural language prompts into coding suggestions.
• AI-Enhanced Developer Productivity: It is designed to accelerate workflow, helping developers with code quality, and security, and enabling better collaboration, making it a critical team member.
• Extensive Editor and IDE Support: Compatible with leading editors such as Visual Studio Code, JetBrains IDEs, and Neovim, it offers versatility and ease of integration into existing developer environments.
• Privacy and Security: Committed to user privacy and security, GitHub Copilot includes features like vulnerability prevention systems and optional code referencing filters to mitigate risks and uphold data protection standards.
• Customizable and Enterprise-Ready: With plans like Copilot Business and Copilot Enterprise, it offers options for customization and integration into larger organizational structures, ensuring alignment with enterprise needs.

Pricing:

• Copilot Individual: $10 per month / $100 per year
• Copilot Business: $19 per user/month
• Copilot Enterprise: $39 per user/month

AskCodi

AskCodi is an AI coding assistant designed to significantly improve coding efficiency. By automating complex coding tasks and simplifying them into more manageable processes, it optimises the coding workflow. 

With a suite of AI-powered tools, it addresses various aspects of coding from generation to integration, supports a wide range of programming languages, and provides quick code suggestions.

Key Features:

• AI-Powered Code Generation: Offers advanced code generation capabilities, enabling users to automate coding tasks and reduce manual effort.
• Integration with IDEs: Compatible with major Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) like Visual Studio Code, Jetbrain IDEs, and Sublime Text, ensuring a smooth coding experience.
• Language Support: Provides comprehensive support for all major programming languages, catering to a wide range of developer needs.
• Coding Workbooks: Features Jupyter Style Notebooks, ideal for developers to experiment and learn coding in an interactive environment.
• Code Translation: Includes a developer-friendly app to effortlessly translate between various programming languages.

Pricing:

• Basic Plan: Free, offering limited access and credits.
• Premium Plan: Priced at $9.99 per month, providing more credits and features.
• Ultimate Plan: Costs $29.99 per month, offering the most extensive access and credits.

Tabnine

Tabnine is an AI coding assistant designed to improve the coding experience by providing personalized code recommendations. It’s a tool that optimizes the software development process, allowing developers to write code more efficiently and accurately.

Key Features:

• Personalized AI Coding Recommendations: Tabnine uses advanced AI to provide highly personalized coding suggestions, adapting to your unique coding style and project requirements.
• Code Privacy and Security: Ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of your code, Tabnine offers robust privacy and security measures to protect your codebase and AI interactions.
• Compatibility with Popular IDEs: Tabnine integrates seamlessly with a wide range of Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), providing a versatile tool for various programming languages and platforms.
• Enterprise-Grade Protection: With compliance to key industry standards including SOC 2 and GDPR, Tabnine offers enterprise-level security for peace of mind in large-scale projects.
• Accelerated Coding Process: By automating routine tasks and offering intelligent code completion, Tabnine significantly speeds up the coding process, allowing more focus on critical development areas.

Pricing: 

• Basic Plan: Price: Free. 
• Pro Plan: Price: $12 per user/month, free for the first 90 days
• Enterprise Plan:Price: $39 per user/month with a 1-year commitment.

Amazon CodeWhisperer

Amazon CodeWhisperer is an innovative AI-powered software development tool that improves productivity in both the IDE and command line. It provides real-time code suggestions, from snippets to full features, based on user comments and existing code. 

It also offers command-line integration and natural language bash translation. CodeWhisperer also includes a feature called Amazon Q, an interactive AI assistant in the IDE that provides expert coding guidance through simple conversational interaction.

Key Features:

• Real-Time Code Suggestions: CodeWhisperer offers immediate, AI-generated code suggestions in the IDE, tailored to the user’s comments and existing code, enhancing coding efficiency.
• Amazon Q Assistant: An AI-powered assistant in the IDE, Amazon Q facilitates understanding and transforming code, personalized code advice, and more, all through conversational interaction.
• Security and Compliance: It flags code suggestions resembling public code, provides repository URLs and licenses for easy review and attribution, and includes security vulnerability scans with suggested fixes.
• Extensive Compatibility: Supports 15 programming languages, various IDEs (including VS Code, IntelliJ IDEA, Visual Studio), and CLIs, ensuring adaptability to various development environments.
• Customization: Users can tailor CodeWhisperer for better suggestions by integrating their internal libraries, APIs, and more, significantly speeding up development processes.

Pricing:

• Individual Tier (Free): Includes unlimited code suggestions, reference tracking, and 50 security scans per month.
• Professional Tier ($19/user/month): Offers additional features such as Amazon Q chat in IDE, higher security scan limits, and organizational policy management.

Codiga

Codiga is a software development tool that improves the efficiency and security of coding practices. It offers a range of features including customizable static code analysis, security analysis, and automated code reviews, all integrated with popular IDEs and CI/CD pipelines. 

The tool not only detects code problems, but also provides immediate fixes, supports a wide range of programming languages, and allows the creation and sharing of custom analysis rules and code snippets.

Key Features:

• Customizable Static Code Analysis: Codiga enables users to create and apply their own static code analysis rules, working across various platforms like VS Code, JetBrains, and GitHub.
• Security Analysis: With support for OWASP 10 and MITRE CWE, this feature addresses common software vulnerabilities and offers automated fixes for security issues.
• Automated Code Reviews: Codiga expedites code reviews, supporting over 12 languages and providing fast feedback, thus facilitating confident code merging.
• Code Snippets: Users can create, share, and access a vast collection of smart code snippets directly in their IDE, enhancing code reuse and collaboration within teams.

Pricing:

• Completely free to use for now.

Replit

Replit is a versatile software development platform that allows rapid creation and collaboration in a variety of programming languages. It provides a smooth environment for users to build, test, and deploy software directly from the browser, using the power of AI for tasks such as code generation, debugging, and auto-completion. 

The platform supports a wide range of projects and integrates with various APIs and tools, fostering a community of developers who can collaborate in real-time, regardless of location.

Key features:

• AI-Enhanced Code Development: Replit integrates AI to assist in code generation, editing, and debugging, significantly streamlining the coding process.
• Real-Time Collaborative Editing: The platform’s multiplayer editor allows multiple users to work on the same project simultaneously, enhancing teamwork and efficiency.
• Diverse Project Support: Users can develop a wide array of projects, from AI-based applications to creative coding and computer vision projects.
• Browser-Based Deployment: Replit enables building, testing, and deploying software directly from the browser, eliminating the need for complex setup processes.
• Mobile App: The Replit mobile app extends the functionality of the platform, allowing users to code and tinker with projects on their mobile devices.

Pricing:

• Replit Starter: Free, suitable for beginners or those exploring code and development environments.
• Replit Core: $20/month, offers premium features including advanced AI models, more powerful workspace, and unlimited private projects.
• Teams: Custom pricing, includes all features in Replit Core plus additional collaboration tools and dedicated support for team environments.

CodeBuddy

Codebuddy is an exciting innovation in coding that changes the way developers interact with their code. It provides a conversational interface powered by GPT-4 that allows users to make changes to their codebase without having to write any code. 

The tool supports full multi-file editing and generation, allowing sweeping changes to be made across an entire project with ease. Its unique features appeal to both experienced developers and those new to coding, streamlining the development process and increasing productivity.

Key Features:

• Conversational Interaction: Codebuddy utilizes a GPT-4 powered AI to enable conversational interactions with your codebase, simplifying the coding process.
• Full Multi-File Support: The tool allows users to effortlessly edit multiple files simultaneously, streamlining project modifications.
• AI-Enhanced Code Editing and Review: It provides an environment for collaborative code editing and review with AI, including a “Chat Only” mode for planning and a DIFF view for reviewing AI-suggested changes.
• Mobile Compatibility: Codebuddy offers a fully-featured mobile experience, ensuring functionality and ease of use on mobile devices, ideal for coding on the go.

Pricing:

• Free Trial: New accounts get 300 credits.
• Basic Plan: $10/month for 600 credits.
• Standard Plan: $30/month for 2,000 credits.
• Power Plan: $60/month for 4,500 credits.
• Professional Plan: $120/month for 10,000 credits.
• Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing for custom installation options.

What is the best AI assistant for software developers?

Unfortunately, there isn’t a single “best” AI assistant for all software developers, as the ideal choice depends on your specific needs and preferences. However, most people recommend Github Copilot or simply ChatGPT, as both of these tools work well for all types of developers.

I would suggest trying them out and seeing which one suits your needs best, as they all offer some sort of free trial and you can see which one is best.

Will AI replace developers in 5 years?

It is highly unlikely that AI will completely replace developers within 5 years. While AI is making significant progress in software development, it is not yet able to recreate the full range of skills and abilities that human developers possess.

Final thoughts

Overall, all of these tools are great for improving your coding process or just making repetitive tasks easier. I think everyone should try to implement AI into their work in some way to increase productivity, and if you are really against it, at least try it.

There are many AI tools that can help with research, content creation, and other tasks. So if you are not trying to use these tools in your work, for example, you are falling behind the rest of the competition.

Use these AI tools carefully, don’t rely on them too much because they are not perfect. They can increase efficiency, but they will not replace software developers any time soon.