GitHub Copilot vs Zed
Which one do AI engines recommend, and how do they differ on price, fit and features?
The short answer
GitHub Copilot is the stronger AI pick in AI Coding Assistants: it has a visibility score of 76.5 versus 1 for Zed, and ranks ahead in 100% of the answers that name both.
Choose GitHub Copilot if…
- You want the brand AI engines rank higher (76.5 vs 1)
- AI answers describe it more positively (56% vs 50% positive)
- You need a self-hosted or on-premises option
- You need SOC 2 Type 1 or ISO/IEC 27001 coverage
Choose Zed if…
- Ideal for small teams already on GitHub
- Works with VS Code and JetBrains
AI visibility side by side
Latest weekly run · Nov 3
| Metric | GitHub Copilot | Zed |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility score | 76.5% | 1% |
| Change vs last week | New | New |
| Rank in AI Coding Assistants | #1 | #26 |
| Share of voice | 14.7% | 0.4% |
| Mentions this run | 70 | 2 |
| Positive in AI answers | 56% | 50% |
The stronger value in each row is marked with a ✓.
Visibility score trend
Weekly runs over the last 60 days
GitHub Copilot 0pp · Zed 0pp over 0 weekly runs.
Engine by engine
GitHub Copilot leads on 3 of 3 engines
Head to head in AI answers
2 engine answers name both brands
| Prompt | Engine | GitHub Copilot | Zed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Is there a free AI coding assistant for small teams? | AI Mode | #1 | #4 |
| Official website of the top AI coding assistant vendors | ChatGPT | #3 | #16 |
Features, pricing & fit
| Dimension | GitHub Copilot | Zed |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | — | Per seat |
| Entry price | — | Free; paid from $10 per seat / mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Deployment | Hosted cloud service; no self-hosted option found | Desktop editor on Windows, macOS and Linux, with remote development over SSH, WSL and dev containers. Users can run local Ollama models, and API keys for hosted providers are kept on the local machine. |
| Compliance | SOC 2 Type 1, ISO/IEC 27001 | — |
| Founded | — | 2021 |
| Headquarters | — | Boulder, Colorado |
| Employees | — | 11–50 |
| Funding | — | Series B · $42M raised |
| Best for | — | Developers who want a fast editor with AI optional, and teams that need org-level control over AI features and data sharing through the Business plan. |
Plans side by side
GitHub Copilot
Pricing not available.
Pros and cons
Themes from the AI answers that mention each brand
GitHub Copilot
- Most widely used AI coding assistant
- Strong integrated editor completion and multi-file agent workflows across VS Code, JetBrains and GitHub
- Strong enterprise default with broad integration, governance and compliance
- Affordable, reliable choice at about $10 per month
- Free tier available for testing
- Usage-based credit system makes heavy agent use hard to predict
- Enterprise tiers require an underlying GitHub Enterprise account, raising effective cost
- Free tier allowance is limited
- Reportedly no longer offers annual billing after June 2026
Zed
- Ideal for small teams already on GitHub
- Works with VS Code and JetBrains
- Heavy usage requires a paid plan upgrade
Data collected ·ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode·coverage 100%·next run
Cite as: SlateIndex, “GitHub Copilot vs Zed”, https://slateindex.ai/compare/copilot-vs-zed, data of Nov 3, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.