Must-Have AI Coding Tools in 2024

What can AI assistants for coding do?

1. Integrate with popular code editors like Visual Studio Code.​
2. Generate complete code snippets from prompts or code comments.
3. Auto-complete lines of code you are writing in real time.
4. Detect errors, bugs, and security vulnerabilities with your code.
5. Provide documentation references, code examples, or tutorials to help developers understand new programming concepts, frameworks, or languages.
6. Writing unit tests in seconds. 

The tools to speed up your development

• GitHub Copilot 

Price: Free trial, 10$ for individuals, 19$ for enterprise.

Description: GitHub Copilot is an artificial intelligence programming assistant that can generate code snippets, suggest code completions, and provide real-time feedback. It was developed by GitHub in collaboration with OpenAI. 

Features:

1. Integrating directly with your text editor.
2. Converting natural language instructions into code.
3. Providing suggestions for multi-line functions.
4. Accelerating the creation of tests.
5. Excluding coding patterns that are commonly vulnerable.
6. Preventing suggestions that match public code.

Languages: Mainly optimized for Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby, Go, C#, and C++, but can generate suggestions for any programming language and many frameworks.

• ​Amazon CodeWhisperer​

Price: Free for individual use.

Description: Amazon CodeWhisperer is a pair programming tool powered by AI. It can complete entire functions with just a comment or a few keystrokes. The system is trained on billions of lines of open-source code, its own codebase, and publicly available documentation and code on forums.

Features: 

1. Offering quick code tips on the go.
2. Integrating easily with AWS services.
3. Performing automatic security checks.
4. Tracking open-source code usage.
5. Aiding in avoiding biased coding.
6. Simplifying management in the business plan.

Languages: Python, Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, C#, Go, Rust, PHP, Ruby, Kotlin, C, C++, Shell scripting, SQL, and Scala. You can use the service from multiple IDEs, including JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, and Rider), Visual Studio (VS) Code, AWS Cloud9, AWS Lambda console, JupyterLab and Amazon SageMaker Studio.

• ​Tabnine​

Price: 0$ for starter, 12$ for pro, custom for enterprise. 

Description: Tabnine is an AI programming tool that uses AI to help you complete code. It has been trained on open-source code from permissive licenses.

Features: 

1. Completing code lines automatically. 
2. Proposing complete function suggestions based on declared functions.
3. Creating code blocks from natural language comments.
4. Mitigating privacy, security, and compliance risks.
5. Operating in a completely isolated mode.
6. Not training on your code unless you opt to link your codebase with Tabnine.
7. Ensuring your code remains private and never exits your environment when linked to Tabnine.

The tool is trained solely on open-source repositories with permissive licenses.

Languages: It supports over 50 programming languages and integrates with popular code editors like Visual Studio Code.

• ​Replit 

Price: 0$ for free plan, 7$ for hacker plan, 20$ pro plan. 

Description: Replit Ghostwriter is an AI coding assistant that suggests code completions based on your code's context, making coding a lot easier.

Features: 

1. Engaging with an AI assistant directly within the IDE.
2. Receiving auto-complete suggestions.
3. Utilizing code context to provide pertinent responses.
4. Identifying issues and recommending improvements.
5. Employing straightforward language to create and refine code examples.
6. Offering easily digestible code summaries.

Languages: Ghostwriter performs best with JavaScript and Python code, but it supports 16 languages in total. The current list includes Bash, C, C#, C++, CSS, Go, Java, JavaScript, HTML, PHP, Perl, Python, R, Ruby, Rust, and SQL. 

• ​IntelliCode by Microsoft​

Price: free for now.

Description: IntelliCode is a code completion tool from Microsoft that suggests code completions based on the context of your code.

Features: 

1. Identifying repeated patterns in your code during local edits.
2. Identifying typical coding tasks suggests appropriate quick actions and completing them while you're typing.
3. The "IntelliCode API Usage Examples" feature shows you practical examples of how other developers have used a particular function, using examples from public open-source repositories on GitHub.

Languages: 

Available for Visual Studio 2022: C#, C++, Java, SQL, XAML in Visual Studio 2022.
Available for Visual Studio Code: TypeScript/JavaScript and Python in Visual Studio Code.

• ​Sourcegraph Cody​

Price: $0 for individuals, custom for enterprise. 

Description: Sourcegraph Cody is an AI-powered code completion tool that uses machine learning to suggest code completions based on the context of your code. 

Features: 

1. Autocompleting single lines, or whole functions in any programming language, configuration file, or documentation.
2. AI-powered chat for your code, answering questions like: How is this repository structured? What does this file do? Where is the X component defined? Why isn't this code working?
3. Running custom and pre-built commands.
4. Using context to answer questions that require an understanding of multiple files or even entire repositories. 

Languages: Cody's broad training data means it supports all programming languages, but it works especially well for Python, Go, JavaScript, and TypeScript.

• ​Sourcery.ai​

Price: Free for open source projects, $10 for all projects, 30$ for teams.

Description: Sourcery is an AI-powered code review tool that uses machine learning to identify code issues and provide recommendations for improvement. 

Features:

1. Providing immediate advice for enhancing code and adhering to best practices.
2. Correcting all occurrences of an issue throughout your codebase with one command by defining a rule, executing it in the CLI, and resolving it.
3. Embedding your rules, standards, and best practices into the code.
4. Offering recommendations in real-time.
5. Functioning throughout your entire development lifecycle (in your IDE (VS Code, PyCharm, Vim, Sublime), from the command line for bulk reviews, and as a pre-commit hook).

Languages: Python, JavaScript, or TypeScript (others are coming soon).

• ​Mutable.ai​

Price: free for the individual plan, 10$ for basic, 25$ for codebase pro, custom for the enterprise. 

Description: MutableAI is an AI-powered code completion tool that uses machine learning to suggest code completions based on the context of your code. 

Features: 

1. Offering AI-driven code completion.
2. Producing high-quality code with a single click.
3. Facilitating development driven by prompts.
4. Generating tests automatically.

Languages: Javascript/Typescript, Go, Rust, Python, Vue, Java etc. 

• Bootstrap

Price: Free plan (limited to 10 users), pro $15 per month (limited to 20 users), enterprise $29 per month (limited to 30 users).

Description: Bootstrap is an open-source JavaScript library that can create reusable components for rapid prototyping and production. It is a front-end technology that can create dynamic and engaging user interfaces.

Features:

1. Pre-built components that make development quick and painless.
2. Contains an extensive list of components like drop-down menus, alert boxes, navigation bars, alerts, progress bars, etc.
3. Sass variables to customize global CSS values in one go.
4. Includes jQuery plugin library to incorporate advanced functionalities.
5. Responsive utility classes for multi-screen displays.

Languages: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

• ​Mintlify​

Price: Free plan, startup $150 per month/project, growth $450 per month/project, custom for the enterprise.

Description: Mintlify is an AI tool that scans the code in the codebase and generates documentation to explain it.

Features:

1. Automatic code documentation generation.
2. Based on the GPT-4 model, Mintlify Chat allows you to search for your documentation and quickly find what you need.
3. Mintlify easily integrates with popular tools like Visual Studio Code, IntelliJ, and IDEA, so it can easily fit into your existing workflow.
4. Languages: Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, JSX, TSX files, C, C++, PHP, Java, C#, Ruby, Rust, Dart, Go.

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How to choose an AI assistant?

1. Make sure the AI code assistant you choose is compatible with the programming languages and developer tools you use. This will ensure that you can use the tool effectively and efficiently.
2. Ensure the AI code assistant's features align with your daily tasks and workflows. If the tool can't help you with the tasks you need to perform, it won't be of much use to you.
3. Consider your budget and choose a tool that fits within your financial constraints.

You may also like Machine Learning Operations: The Rise article. 

Conclusion

AI code assistants are transforming the coding experience for developers. By using AI-based coding assistants' power, developers and programmers can overcome coding challenges, enhance their skills, and create high-quality software solutions for a rapidly evolving world.

In CGS-team, we believe that AI tools can speed up the process and actively use them. However, for now, quality products can't be built without human professionals with vast experience in the field. If you need a reliable development partner ready to cover everything from idea discovery, market research, and design to development, testing, marketing consultancy, and support, let's book a free consultation.