CataleoSoftware
Get Your Software Listed Get Listed

AI Code Comparison

Cline vs. Refact.ai

At a glance

At a glance

Cline

Best for

Best for developers who want vendor independence, model choice or a fully local, private setup.

  • Freelancers
  • Small and mid-sized

Refact.ai

Best for

Best for developers who want an agent, chat and autocomplete in one open-source tool, with a self-hosted option for privacy.

  • Freelancers
  • Small and mid-sized
  • Enterprise

Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.

Full Comparison

Criterion Cline Refact.ai
Starting price Extension free, Apache 2.0 You pay your own model API usage, around $3 to $8 per hour under heavy use. Local models are possible at no cost. Free tier; Pro $10 / month The free plan includes unlimited completions and limited daily agent use. Enterprise is custom, with on-premise deployment and fine-tuning.
Free trial Free open-source extension Free tier
Commercial use Yes Yes
Output Agentic multi-step coding in VS Code Agentic coding, chat and completion in the IDE
API Bring your own Bring your own key
Hosting Not stated Cloud or self-hosted on-premise
Where it runs VS Code extension, open source under Apache 2.0 Plugins for VS Code and JetBrains IDEs, with Visual Studio, Neovim and Sublime Text in beta
Inline completions No, an agent rather than an inline autocomplete tool Yes, real-time completion on Qwen2.5-Coder with retrieval for context
Agent mode Yes, agentic multi-step tasks Yes, an autonomous agent that plans and executes multi-step tasks
Model choice Any model or provider, including local models through Ollama or LM Studio Claude and GPT models built in, plus bring-your-own-key for Gemini, Grok and DeepSeek
Data control Can run fully local through Ollama or LM Studio Self-hosted, on-premise deployment keeps code private
Ecosystem fit VS Code extension, plus a CLI and SDK; extends through MCP servers and plugins IDE plugins across VS Code and JetBrains, open source with a self-hosted server
Deployment more entries Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise Cloud (SaaS), On-premise
Onboarding Not stated Documentation and knowledge base
Company size Freelancers, Small and mid-sized more entries Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise

Compare more tools

Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.

The short version

Key Differences

  • Starting price Cline Extension free, Apache 2.0 Refact.ai Free tier; Pro $10 / month
  • Free trial Cline Free open-source extension Refact.ai Free tier
  • Deployment Cline Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise Refact.ai Cloud (SaaS), On-premise
  • Company size Cline Freelancers, Small and mid-sized Refact.ai Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise
  • Output Cline Agentic multi-step coding in VS Code Refact.ai Agentic coding, chat and completion in the IDE

Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.

The trade-offs

Strengths and Limitations

Cline

Strengths

  • Fully open-source and free extension
  • Use any model or provider
  • Can run fully local for privacy and zero API cost

Limitations

  • You manage model keys and API costs
  • Less polished than commercial IDEs
  • More setup

Refact.ai

Strengths

  • Open source with a self-hosted, on-premise option
  • Agent, chat and completion in one plugin
  • Broad model choice through bring-your-own-key

Limitations

  • Free plan caps daily agent runs
  • Some IDE plugins are still in beta

Plans

Pricing

Cline

  • Extension $0 Open source under Apache 2.0.
  • Model usage Your own API cost Around $3 to $8 per hour under heavy use. Local models are possible at no cost.
Visit site

Refact.ai

  • Free $0 Unlimited completions, limited daily agent use, 32k context chat.
  • Pro $10 Per month. 40 agent requests per day, 64k context chat.
  • Enterprise Not stated Custom. On-premise deployment and fine-tuning.
Visit site

What users say

Review Scores · opens after launch

Cline

Ease of use
Not rated yet
User interface
Not rated yet
Onboarding
Not rated yet
Support and service
Not rated yet
Value for money
Not rated yet
Features
Not rated yet

No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.

Refact.ai

Ease of use
Not rated yet
User interface
Not rated yet
Onboarding
Not rated yet
Support and service
Not rated yet
Value for money
Not rated yet
Features
Not rated yet

No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.

Where this comes from

Where this comes from

Cline https://cline.bot · no check date recorded yet

Refact.ai https://refact.ai · no check date recorded yet

This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.