Refact.ai vs Roo Code (2026)

Refact.ai

by Refact

Roo Code

by Roo Code

Pros

• ✓Exceptionally broad BYOK provider support with zero commission: OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, DeepSeek, OpenRouter, Groq, xAI, plus local runtimes Ollama, LM Studio, and vLLM, with no markup on any provider billing.
• ✓Fully local-first architecture with no vendor dependency: Refact runs entirely from the IDE with user-configured providers, all data stays on the developer's machine, and the open-source codebase is auditable and forkable.
• ✓Rich agent integration surface for a local tool: shell, browser automation, GitHub/GitLab, databases, Docker, MCP, and CLI integrations give the autonomous agent meaningful access to the developer's full workflow.

Limitations

• ⚠No commercial backing or paid support after cloud retirement: the project is community-maintained with no SLA, no dedicated support team, and no commercial entity guaranteeing ongoing development or security updates.
• ⚠Original GitHub repository archived May 30, 2026: development moved to a community fork, creating fragmentation in documentation, issues, and community resources that increases adoption risk for new users.
• ⚠Local-first deployment requires meaningful setup investment: developers must install the local engine, configure BYOK providers or local runtimes, and manage their own infrastructure, unlike hosted alternatives that work immediately after signup.

Pros

• ✓Specialized mode architecture produces more focused results than general-purpose AI, because Code, Architect and Debug modes each carry tailored prompts, tool permissions and context strategies rather than a single general chat.
• ✓Fully model-agnostic through BYOK, with 24 documented provider integrations including Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, Bedrock and Vertex, plus OpenAI-compatible endpoints and local models via Ollama and LM Studio.
• ✓Apache-2.0 licensed with more than 3,400 forks, so the full codebase stays available for audit, self-hosting and community-led continuation, and it is carried forward by the Zoo Code fork.

Limitations

• ⚠Roo Code Inc. shut the extension down on May 15, 2026 and archived the repository the same day. It is read-only, with no further development, bug fixes or security patches from the original team. The company points users to the Zoo Code community fork and to Cline.
• ⚠No commercial support, SLA or compliance certifications. Community support ran through GitHub Issues and Discord, and with the original team no longer active, help for new issues comes only from community forks and the existing documentation.
• ⚠The original team has moved on. Roo Code Inc. now builds Roomote, a separate cloud coding agent, so continuity, licensing and commercial questions can no longer go to the original team. The community-run Zoo Code fork is the maintained path.