Cline

Cline is the open-source autonomous coding agent that runs in VS Code as an extension, designed for developers who want a transparent, self-hostable alternative to proprietary AI coding tools. Built by Cline Inc. with active community contribution, Cline has grown into one of the most-installed open-source AI coding extensions, with particular strength among developers who prioritize transparency, BYOK flexibility, and the ability to audit how AI agents interact with their codebase. Pricing follows an open-source model with no subscription tier: Cline itself is free, and users pay only for AI inference on a usage basis through Cline's purchase system or BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) configuration. The platform supports Claude, OpenAI GPT, Google Gemini, and any OpenAI-compatible API endpoint. Enterprise tier is custom-priced for organizations needing SSO, SLA, dedicated support, JetBrains extension, centralized billing, role-based access control, and team management — addressing procurement requirements for security-conscious deployments. Cline's differentiation versus Cursor, Copilot, and Tabnine is the secure client-side architecture and full transparency: rather than running through a hosted backend, Cline operates entirely within the VS Code extension, with all AI interactions visible to the developer. The MCP Marketplace lets developers extend Cline with community-built tools and integrations, similar to Goose's MCP-first design. Cline Kanban (recently launched) provides a UI to orchestrate agents in Cline, Claude Code, and Codex, positioning Cline as a multi-tool agent orchestrator rather than just a single-tool extension. The platform supports VS Code (with JetBrains extension on Enterprise tier), CLI access, multi-root workspaces, and the broader VS Code extension ecosystem. Cline is open-source on GitHub with active community development. The platform supports both individual developers and enterprise teams, with the open-source code addressing procurement and security review concerns that proprietary AI coding tools cannot match.