Compare / Continue vs Aider
Continue vs Aider
Pick Continue if you want the IDE coding agent (the published Copilot/Cursor/Windsurf stack). Pick Aider if you want AI pair programming in the terminal that edits a git repo.
Facts checked 20 Oct 2026. License, language, and GitHub activity come from the catalog or the project's own repo. "Not in the catalog row" means the public catalog dump does not store that number.
Continue in the catalog Aider in the catalogStart on Railway
How they compare
| Continue | Aider | |
|---|---|---|
| License | Apache-2.0 (catalog) source | Apache-2.0 (catalog) source |
| Language | TypeScript (catalog) | Python (catalog) |
| GitHub activity | 36,267 stars in the catalog source | 49,646 stars in the catalog source |
| Self-host | Published as /stacks/continue-copilot. Runs in VS Code or JetBrains. | Same stack. Terminal + git repo you already have. |
| Best for | Chat and edits inside the IDE. | CLI-first pair programming. |
Self-hosting and resource needs
Both are on /stacks/continue-copilot. Continue is continuedev/continue (VS Code and JetBrains). Aider is Aider-AI/aider. Point either at LiteLLM or Ollama. Cline is the autonomous agent — /compare/cline-vs-aider. You still pay tokens. Neither has a one-click c17 Railway template; Continue runs in the editor.
FAQ
- Cursor or Windsurf?
- Same published stack — /replace/cursor and /replace/windsurf.
- Where is Cline?
- The autonomous agent — /compare/cline-vs-aider.
- Are these free?
- Both catalog rows are Apache-2.0. You pay model tokens.
- How do I deploy Continue?
- Open /stacks/continue-copilot. Point the extension at LiteLLM. Confirm one edit.
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