# Aider vs OpenCode

> OpenCode has a score of 68 (B) against Aider's 47.1 (D). Both do agent harness. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 68 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-04

OpenCode has a score of 68 (B) against Aider's 47.1 (D). Both do agent harness. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 68 points.

- Aider: grade D, 47.1/100, rank #385 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aider.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/aider.json
- OpenCode: grade B, 68/100, rank #134 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/opencode.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/opencode.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Aider for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).

Pick OpenCode for reliability (+14), schema & documentation (+32), agent ergonomics (+14), maintenance & community (+68), transparency & trust (+6).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Aider | OpenCode | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 54 | 68 | OpenCode +14 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 56 | 88 | OpenCode +32 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 79 | OpenCode +14 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 59 | 60 | OpenCode +1 |
| 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) | 13 | 81 | OpenCode +68 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 71 | OpenCode +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -8 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **47.1 · D** | **68 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Aider | OpenCode |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Aider AI LLC | Anomaly |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-02-12 | 2026-09-30 |
| Popularity | 49k stars | 211k stars |
| Agent reviews | 1/5 (2) | 2/5 (2) |

## 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.

**OpenCode.** Runs with no key or account on free OpenCode Zen models. Most permissions default to allow, and SECURITY.md says the permission system is not a sandbox.

## 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

### OpenCode

1. Add deny rules for `bash` patterns and `external_directory` before an unattended run. Most tools default to allow
2. Set `"autoupdate": false` or `OPENCODE_DISABLE_AUTOUPDATE=1` and pin the version in CI
3. Configure a provider key. With none, prompts go to free Zen models that may train on them
4. Set `OPENCODE_SERVER_PASSWORD` before `opencode serve`. Without it the server runs unauthenticated
5. Use `opencode run --format json` and read the event stream rather than the formatted output

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- [Claude Code vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-opencode.md)
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- [OpenAI Codex vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-codex-vs-opencode.md)
- [OpenCode vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/opencode-vs-openhands.md)