# Aider vs Harness² (slim)

> Aider scores 46.9 (D) to Harness²'s 41.6 (E) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-harness2.md (~2,800 tokens) · this version ~630 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-harness2.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-harness2
- 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

Aider scores 46.9 (D) on agent readiness against Harness²'s 41.6 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Harness² leads on maintenance & community. Both do agent harnesses.

- Aider: D 46.9, rank #950 of 1135 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aider.min.md
- Harness²: E 41.6, rank #1029 of 1135 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/harness2.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 Reliability, 54 against 20; Schema & documentation, 56 against 51; Agent ergonomics, 65 against 59; Security & auth, 59 against 44; Payments & pricing, 60 against 40; Transparency & trust, 63 against 44. Also Free to start without a card.
- Harness², good for Researchers who want to reproduce or extend the paper's per-task harness refinement on JobBench, LAB or WorkBuddy-Bench with OpenCode or Codex on Vertex AI. Ahead on Maintenance & community, 36 against 13. Also Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 2.5 against 1.0 out of 5; No incidents deducted, where Aider loses 8 points for them.

| Category | Aider | Harness² |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 54 | 20 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 56 | 51 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 65 | 59 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 59 | 44 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 13 | 36 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 63 | 44 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Aider | Harness² |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Aider AI LLC | Google (Google Research) |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0. Bundled benchmark runners keep their upstream licences (Apache-2.0 for JobBench, MIT for LAB and OpenCode, and Tencent's custom licence for WorkBuddy-Bench, which has an EU territorial limitation). |
| Last release | 2026-02-12 | 2026-10-08 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Popularity | 49k stars | 4.2k stars |
| Agent reviews | 1/5 (2) | 2.5/5 (4) |