Cline

New

AI Coding, Open Source and Open Choice

AI Coding AssistantsSan Francisco, CA, United States11–50 employees

#16 of 46 in AI Coding Assistants 54% positive in AI answers

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Visibility score

5.3%

New vs last week

Weekly run · Nov 3

Data collected Nov 3, 2026·ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode·coverage 100%·next run Nov 9, 2026

Cline ranks #16 of 46 in AI Coding Assistants with an AI visibility score of 5.3 (SlateIndex, Nov 3, 2026).
Cline is most visible on Perplexity (8.3) and least on ChatGPT (3).
AI engines name Cline in 7 of the 30 AI Coding Assistants buyer prompts SlateIndex tracks.
superblocks.com is the source AI engines cite most in answers about Cline, with 12 citations.

About

Company details for Cline

Cline is an open-source AI coding agent that runs in VS Code, Windsurf, JetBrains, Cursor, and the terminal. It plans work in Plan mode, then carries it out in Act mode, editing multiple files and running shell commands. It supports MCP servers, works with Claude, GPT, Gemini, and local models, and an SDK lets teams embed the same agent runtime in their own products. It ranks #16 of 46 in AI Coding Assistants on SlateIndex and has a visibility score of 5.3 in the latest weekly run.

It has raised about $32M. Its differentiator: open source with no vendor lock-in: bring your own key or your own model, and keep the same workflow across IDE, terminal and SDK.

Website: cline.bot
Categories: AI Coding Assistants
Company size: 11–50 employees
Headquarters: San Francisco, CA, United States
Company type: Private, venture-backed
Funding: Seed · $32M raised
Pricing: Contact sales · usage-based
Free trial: Free plan available
Deployment: Runs in your editor, terminal or own apps, with local or cloud AI models, and VPC deployments on Enterprise.
Platforms: VS Code, Windsurf, JetBrains, Cursor, Terminal (CLI), macOS, Windows, Linux
Support: Community support for the open-source version, Priority and dedicated support on Enterprise, SLA on Enterprise

GitHub · github.com/cline/cline X · x.com/cline LinkedIn · linkedin.com/company/clinebot

Read from linkedin.com, cline.bot, ai.g2.com, github.com, blog.newsletterforleads.com, news.aibase.com · refreshed Nov 3, 2026.

AI visibility

Latest weekly run · Nov 3 · next run Nov 9

Visibility score

5.3%

across AI Coding Assistants answers, weighted by position

ChatGPT3%

AI Mode4.6%

Perplexity8.3%

Change

New

vs last week’s run

Category rank

#16 of 46

in AI Coding Assistants

Mentions

in this week’s run

Share of voice

2.6%

of AI mentions in AI Coding Assistants

Visibility score trend

Weekly runs over the last 60 days, with up to 7 competitors. Click a name to hide or show its line.

Now5.3%

30-day change—

High · low5.3% · 5.3%

Rank#16

Changes appear after the second weekly run in AI Coding Assistants. GitHub Copilot leads the category at 76.5%.

Media

Website and product screenshots for Cline

All media

Home page

Pricing page

AI mentions & citations

Recent answers that name Cline

All prompts

Is there a free AI coding assistant for small teams?

Cline or Aider — free open-source tools, but the team supplies an API key and pays model-token costs; using a local model can eliminate API charges.

Perplexity · run of Nov 3

What are the best AI coding assistant tools in 2026?

Cline / RooCode : Highly favored open options/VS Code extensions that offer granular model control and reliable handling of large codebase modifications.[](https://www.faros.ai/blog/best-ai-coding-agents-2026)

Google AI Mode · run of Nov 3

Most affordable AI coding assistant that is still reliable

Aider / Cline (Open-Source + BYO API Key)

Google AI Mode · run of Nov 3

Most affordable AI coding assistant that is still reliable

Cheapest flexible setup: Cline or Aider with your own API key.

Perplexity · run of Nov 3

Compare the leading AI coding assistant platforms

Google AI Mode · run of Nov 3

Alternatives to the most popular AI coding assistant

Best free/open-source flexibility: Cline

ChatGPT · run of Nov 3

What are the best AI coding assistant tools in 2026?

ChatGPT · run of Nov 3

What are the best AI coding assistant tools in 2026?

Best open-source/BYOK option: Cline or Aider, which let developers choose models and manage usage directly.

Perplexity · run of Nov 3

Products & features

What Cline sells

Cline extension

Open-source AI coding agent installed in VS Code, Windsurf, JetBrains or Cursor, with Plan and Act modes and multi-file edits.

Cline CLI

Runs the coding agent from the terminal, installed with npm, for prompt-to-production work in the shell.

Cline SDK

Embeds the Cline agent runtime in your own apps, with custom tools and lifecycle hooks.

Cline for Desktop

Native desktop app for running the coding agent without an editor.

Cline Teams

Enterprise tier with organization management and centralized billing.

Strengths engines cite

Open-source with bring-your-own API key
Granular model control and choice of models
Reliable handling of large codebase modifications
Free, flexible setup
Fits strict privacy and compliance needs with approved models

Target market & buyers

Individual developers and engineering organizations.

Notable customers include Samsung, SAP.

Industry	Primary use case
Software Development	Multi-file refactoring, codebase understanding, terminal automation, and headless runs in CI pipelines.

Funding & recent developments

Funding

Round	Year	Amount
Seed	2024	$8M
Combined seed and Series A	2025	$32M
Series A	2025	$27M
Seed	2025	$5M

Latest known round	Total raised
Seed	$32M

Recent developments

Oct 2026ProductCline Desktop launched and token consumption reported up 20x
The CEO said token consumption grew 20x over four months, and the company launched Cline Desktop, an open-source app for open-weight models.
Feb 2026SecurityUnauthorized cline@2.3.0 published to npm
An unauthorized cline@2.3.0 was published to npm. Cline published 2.4.0 and deprecated 2.3.0 the same day.
Feb 2026SecurityClinejection vulnerability chain disclosed
A security researcher disclosed a vulnerability chain in Cline's GitHub repository that could turn its AI issue-triage bot into a supply-chain attack vector. Cline says it fixed it within 30 minutes.
Jul 2025Funding$32M combined seed and Series A announced
Cline announced a $32M combined seed and Series A led by Emergence Capital, with Pace Capital, 1984 Ventures, Essence VC and Cox Exponential participating.

Competitive landscape

How Cline compares with its top three alternatives

All alternatives

Cline most often appears alongside GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude in AI answers.

vsCline vs GitHub Copilot5.3% vs 76.5% visibility · GitHub Copilot leadsFull comparison vsCline vs Cursor5.3% vs 67.7% visibility · Cursor leadsFull comparison vsCline vs Claude5.3% vs 47.5% visibility · Claude leadsFull comparison

Brand	Visibility	Share of voice	vs last week	Starting price
Cline	5.3%	2.6%	New	Free plan
GitHub Copilot	76.5%	14.7%	New	Pricing not available
Cursor	67.7%	13.6%	New	Pricing not available
Claude	47.5%	11%	New	Pricing not available
Devin	16.9%	6.1%	New	Free plan