head-to-head · tool vs tool
Cline vs Aider
Live matchup data for Cline and Aider: OpenRouter usage, pricing, benchmark scores, and community sentiment, refreshed daily. No verdicts — read the tape.
openrouter tokens/day
usage compares on other signals below
usage — openrouter daily tokens
Usage crossover
source: OpenRouter app rankings · daily · 90d · no OpenRouter feed: Aider
through Aug 20, 2026
side by side
Spec & pricing
| Spec | Cline | Aider |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Cline Bot Inc. | Aider |
| Homepage | cline.bot | aider.chat |
| GitHub | cline/cline | Aider-AI/aider |
| Package | cline | aider-chat |
| Subscription plans |
snapshot Jul 12, 2026 | — |
| Latest plan change | Cline plans changed: added Open Source; removed Free detected Jul 12, 2026 | — |
| GitHub stars | 66,569 | 48,370 |
| Pkg downloads/day | 0 | 27,233 |
| Latest release | desktop-v0.0.15 · 42 h ago | v0.86.0 · 378 d ago |
sources: provider pages · OpenRouter · GitHub · package registries
— = not tracked / not applicable
head to head
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Cline | Aider | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Lite | — | 26.3%May 23 · aider | github.com |
best tracked score per benchmark · scores are not directly comparable across benchmarks
sources linked per row
community pulse
Reddit sentiment
| Signal | Cline | Aider |
|---|---|---|
| Mentions (30d) | 278 | 290 |
| Positive share | 12.9% | 2.1% |
| Negative share | 16.9% | 0.7% |
| Net sentiment | -4% | +1.4% |
| 30d trend |
source: Reddit mentions, LLM-classified sentiment · trailing 30d
through Aug 21, 2026
faq
Frequently asked
- Is Cline more used than Aider?
- The Token Tape tracks daily OpenRouter usage for this matchup, but Aider has no usage feed yet, so no usage comparison is published. Pricing, benchmarks, and sentiment compare on the available signals.
- How does Cline pricing compare to Aider?
- Cline tracked plans: Open Source (free), Enterprise. Full plan and per-token detail is in the spec table above, each with its source and capture date.
- How do Cline and Aider score on coding benchmarks?
- The tape holds 0 tracked results for Cline and 1 for Aider, but none on a shared benchmark yet — scores are listed side by side without a common baseline.
- Where does this comparison data come from?
- OpenRouter public rankings (usage), provider pricing pages (plans and per-token prices), GitHub and package registries (adoption), public benchmark leaderboards, and Reddit (sentiment). Every stored datum keeps its source URL, and the tape refreshes daily. The Token Tape publishes the data without declaring a winner.
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