Roo Code vs Stagewise (2026)

Roo Code

by Roo Code

Stagewise

by stagewise (YC S25)

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 Community support ran through GitHub Issues and Discord, and with the original team no longer active, help for new issues comes only from community forks and the existing documentation.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.

Pros

• ✓Multi-agent orchestration with parallel execution: run multiple agents simultaneously each implementing full features or fixing bugs in isolated contexts, with an average 87.6% cache hit rate enabling long-running tasks at lower cost than single-agent alternatives.
• ✓Universal model support with BYOK or subscription passthrough: connect OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, and more via your own API keys or existing coding subscriptions, with no vendor lock-in.
• ✓Open-source AGPL-3.0 with live app previews and git workflows: full source auditable on GitHub, app preview rendering shows changes live during agent execution, and git workflow integration handles branching and commits natively.

Limitations

• –macOS-only desktop app limits cross-platform team adoption: Windows and Linux support is not yet available, which is a hard constraint for teams that do not standardize on macOS development machines.
• –No public pricing page: paid plans exist via Stripe but tier details are not publicly listed, requiring direct contact or app sign-up to understand costs before committing to a subscription.
• –AGPL-3.0 license has commercial implications: teams embedding or distributing Stagewise as part of commercial products must comply with AGPL copyleft requirements, which may require legal review before enterprise adoption.