The landscape of AI coding tools has gotten crowded enough that “just try all of them” is no longer good advice. Here is what actually differs.
Autocomplete-style tools
These predict the next few lines as you type. Best for reducing boilerplate in code you already know how to write.
Chat-based assistants
Better for explaining unfamiliar code, debugging, or working through a design decision — the interaction is conversational rather than predictive.
Agentic tools
The newest category: tools that can read a whole codebase, make multi-file changes, and run commands. Powerful, but worth pairing with strong version control habits since changes can be large.
The honest recommendation
Match the tool to the task, not the other way around. Most developers end up using more than one.