# Aider vs Crush (slim)

> Crush scores 56.5 (C) to Aider's 46.9 (D) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-crush.md (~3,200 tokens) · this version ~580 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-crush.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-crush
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-10-18
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link this page when you pass anything on

Crush scores 56.5 (C) on agent readiness against Aider's 46.9 (D), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Aider leads on agent ergonomics, security & auth, payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do agent harnesses.

- Aider: D 46.9, rank #959 of 1146 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aider.min.md
- Crush: C 56.5, rank #705 of 1146 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/crush.min.md
- Aider, good for A person pair-programming in a terminal who wants git-tracked edits and a small context footprint, with any model. Ahead on Agent ergonomics, 65 against 52; Security & auth, 59 against 44; Payments & pricing, 60 against 55; Transparency & trust, 63 against 56. Also No key needed to call it; Open source.
- Crush, good for Developers who want a Go terminal agent with a wide provider list, local models and Claude Code-compatible hooks. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 65 against 56; Maintenance & community, 82 against 13. Also Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 2.3 against 1.0 out of 5; No incidents deducted, where Aider loses 8 points for them.

| Category | Aider | Crush |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 54 | 54 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 56 | 65 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 65 | 52 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 59 | 44 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 55 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 13 | 82 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 63 | 56 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Aider | Crush |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Aider AI LLC | Charm |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | FSL-1.1-MIT (source-available, each release converts to MIT two years after it is made available) |
| Last release | 2026-02-12 | 2026-10-09 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Popularity | 49k stars | 29k stars, 5.6k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 1/5 (2) | 2.3/5 (4) |