# Agent Zero vs Aider

> Agent Zero scores 54.2 (C) to Aider's 46.9 (D) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-aider
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-aider.md (~2,400 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-aider.min.md (~530 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-aider.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-12

Agent Zero scores 54.2 (C) on agent readiness against Aider's 46.9 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Aider leads on security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do agent harnesses.

- Agent Zero: grade C, 54.2/100, rank #709 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agent-zero.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agent-zero.json
- Aider: grade D, 46.9/100, rank #860 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aider.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/aider.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 205 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Agent Zero (C)

Good for: A technical owner who wants an agent with its own Linux machine, reachable from Telegram, WhatsApp or email, with scheduled tasks and editable memory.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 64 against 56
- Maintenance & community, 75 against 13

Watch for: No approval step before shell commands, file changes or outgoing messages. Tool Access defaults to allow

### Aider (D)

Good for: A person pair-programming in a terminal who wants git-tracked edits and a small context footprint, with any model.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 59 against 54
- Transparency & trust, 63 against 55

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No release since 0.86.2 on 12 February 2026 and no commit since 22 May 2026


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Agent Zero | Aider | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 57 | 54 | Agent Zero +3 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 56 | Agent Zero +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 62 | 65 | Aider +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 54 | 59 | Aider +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 13 | Agent Zero +62 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 55 | 63 | Aider +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -6 | -8 | |
| **Total** | | **54.2 · C** | **46.9 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Agent Zero | Aider |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Agent Zero, s.r.o. | Aider AI LLC |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-23 | 2026-02-12 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | 19k stars | 49k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 1/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Agent Zero.** Self-hosted under the MIT licence, with nine releases in the 90 days to 12 October 2026 and breaking changes listed in the release notes. The agent runs shell commands in its container with no approval step, the web interface has no login by default, and five CVEs from the past year have no published GitHub advisory.

**Aider.** Analytics opt-in and offered to 10 per cent of users, with a permanent opt-out and a local log. No release since 0.86.2 on 12 February 2026 and no commit since 22 May 2026.

## Before you call either

### Agent Zero

1. Set a UI login and password in Settings before publishing the port or opening a tunnel. The default has none
2. Fill `allowed_users`, `allowed_numbers` or `sender_whitelist` before enabling a channel. An empty list accepts every sender
3. Enable the Infection Check plugin when the agent reads mail, web pages or MCP results. It ships disabled
4. Run v2.12 or later. It fixes a Telegram webhook authentication bypass and a WhatsApp media path traversal
5. Call `POST /api_message` with the `X-API-KEY` header. The token changes when the UI login or password changes

### Aider

1. Read `.aider.conf.yml` in any cloned repository before starting aider. Its `test-cmd` and `lint-cmd` run without asking
2. Script edits with `--message` and `--no-suggest-shell-commands`, not `--yes-always`
3. Use Python 3.12 or earlier for the PyPI release
4. Pass `--no-detect-urls` when the prompt holds links you don't want offered for scraping
5. Check `git log` after a run. Each edit is its own commit

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Agent Zero or Aider?

Agent Zero scores 54.2 (C) on agent readiness against Aider's 46.9 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Aider leads on security & auth and transparency & trust.

### Are Agent Zero and Aider open source?

Yes. Agent Zero is open source (MIT). Aider is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-aider.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-aider.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "agent-zero", "b": "aider"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare agent-zero aider`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agent-zero.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/aider.json

## Other comparisons with Agent Zero or Aider

- [Agent Zero vs Amp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-amp.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Antigravity CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-antigravity-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Claude Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-claude-code.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-cline.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-cursor-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Devin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-devin.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Droid CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-droid-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Pi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-earendil-pi.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Gemini CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-gemini-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs GitHub Copilot CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-github-copilot-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-goose.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Kilo Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-kilo-code-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Kiro CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-kiro-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-openai-codex.md)
- [Agent Zero vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-opencode.md)
- [Agent Zero vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-openhands.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-qwen-code.md)
- [Aider vs Amp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-amp.md)
- [Aider vs Antigravity CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-antigravity-cli.md)
- [Aider vs Claude Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-claude-code.md)
- [Aider vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-cline.md)
- [Aider vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-cursor-cli.md)
- [Aider vs Devin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-devin.md)
- [Aider vs Droid CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-droid-cli.md)
- [Aider vs Pi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-earendil-pi.md)
- [Aider vs Gemini CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-gemini-cli.md)
- [Aider vs GitHub Copilot CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-github-copilot-cli.md)
- [Aider vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-goose.md)
- [Aider vs Kilo Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-kilo-code-cli.md)
- [Aider vs Kiro CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-kiro-cli.md)
- [Aider vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-openai-codex.md)
- [Aider vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-opencode.md)
- [Aider vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-openhands.md)
- [Aider vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Aider vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-qwen-code.md)