# Aider vs Devin

> Devin scores 55.7 (C) on agent readiness against Aider's 46.9 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Aider leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do agent harness. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-devin
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-devin.md (~2,250 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-devin.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-devin.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: 2026-10-08

Devin scores 55.7 (C) on agent readiness against Aider's 46.9 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Aider leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do agent harness.

- Aider: grade D, 46.9/100, rank #552 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aider.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/aider.json
- Devin: grade C, 55.7/100, rank #447 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/devin.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/devin.json

## Which one, for what

### 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:
- Reliability, 54 against 30
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card
- Open source

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

### Devin (C)

Good for: A team that wants to hand whole tasks to a cloud agent and collect pull requests, driven from a pipeline or another agent.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 80 against 56
- Security & auth, 72 against 59
- Maintenance & community, 63 against 13
- Transparency & trust, 69 against 63

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- No incidents deducted, where Aider loses 8 points for them

Watch for: www.devinstatus.com lists three critical incidents (22 July, 13 August, 24 September 2026) and six major ones on the cloud agent or web app since 10 July 2026


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Aider | Devin | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 54 | 30 | Aider +24 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 56 | 80 | Devin +24 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 62 | Aider +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 59 | 72 | Devin +13 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 20 | Aider +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 13 | 63 | Devin +50 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 69 | Devin +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -8 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **46.9 · D** | **55.7 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Aider | Devin |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Aider AI LLC | Cognition AI, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://mcp.devin.ai/mcp` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under Cognition's Platform Terms of Service |
| Tools exposed | none | 13 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-02-12 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-06-30 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-03-09 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 49k stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 1/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Devin.** The v3 API is well specified, with a public OpenAPI 3.1 file covering 239 operations, problem+json errors, cursor pagination and service-user keys tied to roles. The status page records three critical and several major incidents on the cloud agent between 22 July and 24 September 2026, and no rate limit figures or retry guidance were found in the reviewed documentation.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Devin

1. Use a `cog_` service-user key with the Member role. Legacy `apk_` keys fail against v3 and the MCP server with 401 or 403
2. Set `max_acu_limit` on every session you create. Usage is metered by the work done and has no published unit rate
3. Session creation is not idempotent in v3. After a timeout, list sessions by tag before creating again
4. Enterprise keys and personal access tokens must send `X-Org-Id` to the MCP server. Organisation-scoped keys resolve it automatically
5. Create scheduled work as an automation. POST to the schedules endpoint returns 403 for migrated organisations since 24 September 2026

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Aider or Devin?

Devin scores 55.7 (C) on agent readiness against Aider's 46.9 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Aider leads on reliability and payments & pricing.

### Are Aider and Devin open source?

Aider is open source (Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for Devin.


## For agents

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

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