💻 Real-World AI Coding Assistant Experience Report
Look, I've been using AI coding assistants since GitHub Copilot's beta in 2021. Paid for every major tool, used them on real projects, hit all the painful edge cases. Here's what actually matters when you're debugging at 3am.
GitHub Copilot - The One That Actually Works
🤖 GitHub Copilot Performance Analysis:
Free tier now exists: 2,000 completions + 50 chats/month. Pro is $10/month. Just fucking pay it.
Been using Copilot for 18 months straight. It's not perfect but it's the least broken of the bunch. The autocomplete suggestions are good enough that I miss them when they're not there.
What actually works:
- Autocomplete that doesn't make you want to throw your laptop
- Suggests reasonable variable names instead of
fooandbar - Decent at boilerplate React components and Express routes
- Handles TypeScript interfaces without breaking
- Works in VS Code without requiring IT approval
What pisses me off:
- Sometimes suggests deprecated APIs from Stack Overflow answers from 2015
- Autocomplete randomly stops working and you have to restart VS Code
- Chat feature is useless compared to just using ChatGPT directly
- $10/month adds up when you're already paying for 20 other dev tools
Real world gotcha: The GitHub Copilot extension breaks if you have too many VS Code extensions. Took me 3 hours to figure out why autocomplete wasn't working - turns out the bracket-pair-colorizer-2 extension was causing conflicts every time I opened a TypeScript file over 500 lines. Had to disable it and 3 other extensions to get stable autocomplete.
But here's the thing - some days I love Copilot, other days it pisses me off so much I consider going back to plain IntelliSense. Like when it keeps suggesting the exact same wrong function signature 8 times in a row.
Windsurf (formerly Codeium) - Free Credits Run Out Fast
Windsurf/Codeium Testing Results:
Free tier is now 25 credits/month. Not unlimited anymore. Pro is $15/month for 500 credits.
Tried Codeium for exactly 6 weeks to save $20. They rebranded to Windsurf in April 2025 and completely fucked their pricing model. Used to be unlimited free, now it's this bullshit credit system that makes you count every interaction.
The autocomplete works but feels like a knockoff of Copilot running on a Pentium 4. Their Windsurf IDE is actually decent though - feels like what Cursor should have been, but I got pissed at the credit system after 2 days and went back to Copilot. Sometimes I still use Windsurf when I've hit my Copilot Pro limits (yeah, that happens more than I'd like to admit).
What works:
- 25 free credits/month (better than nothing)
- Decent autocomplete for common languages
- Privacy policy isn't completely terrible
- Windsurf IDE has some cool features like Cascade
- Pro plan at $15/month is cheaper than some alternatives
What doesn't work:
- 25 credits disappear in 3 days if you're actually coding
- Suggestions are noticeably worse than Copilot
- Sometimes suggests complete garbage that doesn't compile
- Chat feature is slow and often gives wrong answers
- Credit system makes you think twice about every interaction
Production failure story: Windsurf suggested using `useEffect` without a dependency array in a React component. Accepted the suggestion because I was tired and it was 11:47pm. Deployed to staging, immediately got the Maximum update depth exceeded error flooding our logs. Caused an infinite loop that took down our staging environment for 2 hours and triggered 47 Slack alerts.
The really annoying part? I've made this exact mistake manually before. At least it only cost 1 credit, unlike the $200 AWS bill from last time when it hit production.
Tabnine - For When Your Company is Paranoid
🔒 Enterprise-First AI Coding Assistant:
Dev plan: $9/month. Enterprise: $39/month. Enterprise pricing is "call us" which means expensive as hell.
Used Tabnine at a previous job because our CISO wouldn't approve anything that sent code to external servers. It works offline which is the main selling point.
What actually works:
- Runs completely offline (no internet required)
- Enterprise deployment doesn't require arguing with security team
- Autocomplete is okay for common patterns
- Doesn't randomly break like some other tools
What sucks:
- AI quality feels like it's from 2019
- Expensive for what you get
- Setup process is annoying
- Limited language support compared to Copilot
Real experience: Spent exactly 3 weeks and 4 days getting Tabnine approved for our team - had to fill out a 12-page security assessment and do 2 demos for the CISO. Works fine but I was significantly less productive than when I had Copilot at home. The AI suggestions feel like they're from 2019.
$9/month felt overpriced for what you get compared to Copilot's $10. I mean, honestly, some nights I'd code on my personal laptop just to get Copilot autocomplete. Yeah, I know that sounds pathetic, but Tabnine suggesting var instead of const in 2025 is just insulting.
But credit where it's due - never crashed VS Code once in 8 months. Can't say that about Copilot.
Amazon Q Developer - Only Good If You Live in AWS
☁️ AWS-Focused AI Development Assistant:
$19/month for Pro. Free tier is basically useless.
Amazon's attempt at an AI coding assistant. Only tried it because we're already paying AWS for everything else. It's... fine if you're building AWS applications.
What works:
- Good at suggesting AWS SDK usage patterns
- Integrates with AWS documentation
- CLI tool is actually useful for remembering AWS commands
What doesn't work:
- Useless if you're not building on AWS
- More expensive than Copilot for worse general coding assistance
- Chat responses feel like reading AWS documentation
- Limited IDE support compared to others
Reality check: If you're not using AWS extensively, skip it. I cancelled after one month because 90% of my code isn't AWS-specific.
The Bottom Line
After burning through $500+ testing these tools:
If you can afford $10/month: Use GitHub Copilot Pro. It just works and saves time. Well, most of the time. Except when it doesn't and you want to throw your laptop.
If you're broke: GitHub Copilot Free (2,000 completions/month) or Windsurf (25 credits/month). Both will make you miss unlimited autocomplete pretty fast.
If your company won't let you send code externally: Tabnine is your only real option. Expensive as fuck but works offline. Your productivity will tank for the first month.
If you're building AWS apps exclusively: Maybe try Q Developer. Otherwise skip it. I cancelled after exactly 4 weeks because it was useless for 90% of my code.
Pro tip: Whatever you pick, learn to use the disable shortcuts (Ctrl+Alt+] in VS Code). Sometimes the AI suggestions are so bad they slow you down more than writing code manually. Like when Copilot insists on suggesting jQuery in a React app.
Look, I recommend Copilot but honestly some days I hate it and want to switch back to plain autocomplete. Then I try coding without it for 20 minutes and I'm back.
Been using these tools since 2021. This advice is based on actual production usage, not marketing materials. Your experience may vary, especially if you're not coding JavaScript 80% of the time like me.
