# Cline vs Droid CLI

> Cline scores 60.4 (C) to Droid CLI's 59.1 (C) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-droid-cli
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-droid-cli.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-droid-cli.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-droid-cli.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: 2026-10-09

Cline scores 60.4 (C) on agent readiness against Droid CLI's 59.1 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Droid CLI leads on agent ergonomics and security & auth. Both do agent harnesses.

- Cline: grade C, 60.4/100, rank #512 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cline.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cline.json
- Droid CLI: grade C, 59.1/100, rank #560 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/droid-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/droid-cli.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 167 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Cline (C)

Good for: Developers who want an agent inside VS Code or JetBrains that asks before acting and can roll back, with the same engine in a CLI.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 80 against 49
- Payments & pricing, 50 against 10
- Maintenance & community, 85 against 79

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

Watch for: The CLI approves every tool by default outside ACP mode and starts on Cline's own provider

### Droid CLI (C)

Good for: Teams that want a terminal coding agent with tiered autonomy, command rules and an optional sandbox, and that will pay for a Factory plan.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 67
- Security & auth, 63 against 57

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Cline loses 8 points for them

Watch for: No free tier or trial was found. Plans start at $20 a month and included usage is stated only as rolling rate limits without numbers


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cline | Droid CLI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 49 | Cline +31 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 79 | Droid CLI +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 72 | Droid CLI +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 63 | Droid CLI +6 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 10 | Cline +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 79 | Cline +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 64 | Droid CLI +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -8 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **60.4 · C** | **59.1 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cline | Droid CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Cline Bot Inc. | Factory |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary, under Factory's Terms and Conditions. The `droid` npm package is marked `UNLICENSED` and the public repository holds documentation only. The Python SDK is Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-08 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-09-25 | 2026-07-14 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-09-24 | 2026-08-20 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 68k stars | 49 stars, 7.8k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**Cline.** Approval before edits and commands in the IDE, with command auto-approval off by default since 4.0.0. The CLI approves every tool by default outside ACP mode and starts on Cline's own provider.

**Droid CLI.** `droid exec` is read-only unless `--auto` raises the autonomy level, with command rules, an optional kernel-enforced sandbox, JSON output and documented exit codes. No free tier, status page or security.txt was found, the source is closed, and usage metrics go to Factory by default.

## Before you call either

### Cline

1. Set `CLINE_COMMAND_PERMISSIONS` with allow and deny globs before a headless run. The CLI approves every tool by default
2. Pick a provider with `-P` and a key, or run `cline auth`. The default provider needs a Cline sign-in
3. Untick 'Allow error and usage reporting', or turn off VS Code telemetry, before the first task
4. Pin the CLI version. 2.3.0 was a malicious publish
5. Keep the hub on 127.0.0.1 or set ROOM_SECRET, and run 3.0.30 or later

### Droid CLI

1. Set `FACTORY_API_KEY` (starts `fk-`) from the API keys page in Factory settings for headless runs. Interactive use signs in through a browser
2. Start with `droid exec` and no flags for analysis. Add `--auto low` for edits and `--auto medium` for installs, tests and local commits
3. Use `--output-format json` and read `is_error`, `num_turns` and `session_id`. Treat a non-zero exit code as failure
4. Set `sandbox.enabled` to true before running on untrusted code. In `droid exec` a sandbox violation is denied without a prompt
5. Pin the version in CI with `npm install -g droid@<version>`, or set `FACTORY_DROID_AUTO_UPDATE_ENABLED=false` on standalone installs, which update themselves

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Cline or Droid CLI?

Cline scores 60.4 (C) on agent readiness against Droid CLI's 59.1 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Droid CLI leads on agent ergonomics and security & auth.

### Are Cline and Droid CLI open source?

Cline is open source (Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for Droid CLI.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Cline or Droid CLI

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- [Cursor CLI vs Droid CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-droid-cli.md)
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- [Droid CLI vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/droid-cli-vs-openhands.md)
- [Droid CLI vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/droid-cli-vs-prime-agent.md)
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