# Devin vs Droid CLI

> Droid CLI scores 59.1 (C) to Devin's 55.7 (C) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/devin-vs-droid-cli
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/devin-vs-droid-cli.md (~2,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/devin-vs-droid-cli.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/devin-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

Droid CLI scores 59.1 (C) on agent readiness against Devin's 55.7 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Devin leads on security & auth, payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do agent harnesses.

- Devin: grade C, 55.7/100, rank #651 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/devin.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/devin.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

### 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:
- Security & auth, 72 against 63
- Payments & pricing, 20 against 10
- Transparency & trust, 69 against 64

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

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

### 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:
- Reliability, 49 against 30
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 62
- Maintenance & community, 79 against 63

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 | Devin | Droid CLI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 30 | 49 | Droid CLI +19 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 79 | Devin +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 62 | 72 | Droid CLI +10 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 72 | 63 | Devin +9 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 10 | Devin +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 79 | Droid CLI +16 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 69 | 64 | Devin +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **55.7 · C** | **59.1 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Devin | Droid CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Cognition AI, Inc. | Factory |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.devin.ai/mcp` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP |  |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Cognition's Platform Terms of Service | 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 |
| Tools exposed | 13 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-08 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-06-30 | 2026-07-14 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-03-09 | 2026-08-20 |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | none | 49 stars, 7.8k npm/wk |

## Verdicts

**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.

**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

### 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

### 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, Devin or Droid CLI?

Droid CLI scores 59.1 (C) on agent readiness against Devin's 55.7 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Devin leads on security & auth, payments & pricing and transparency & trust.


## For agents

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

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