Kiro vs Zed

Which one do AI engines recommend, and how do they differ on price, fit and features?

The short answer

Kiro is the stronger AI pick in AI Coding Assistants: it has a visibility score of 2.8 versus 1 for Zed, and ranks ahead in 100% of the answers that name both.

Choose Kiro if…

You want the brand AI engines rank higher (2.8 vs 1)
You need ISO/IEC 27001:2022 (covered under AWS certification) coverage
Publishes clear numerical credit or request allowances
Suited to AWS-heavy enterprises needing cloud-platform integration

Choose Zed if…

You want a lower entry price ($10 vs $20)
AI answers describe it more positively (50% vs 22% positive)
Ideal for small teams already on GitHub
Works with VS Code and JetBrains

AI visibility side by side

Latest weekly run · Nov 3

Metric	Kiro	Zed
Visibility score	2.8%	1%
Change vs last week	New	New
Rank in AI Coding Assistants	#19	#26
Share of voice	1.3%	0.4%
Mentions this run	7	2
Positive in AI answers	22%	50%

The stronger value in each row is marked with a ✓.

Visibility score trend

Weekly runs over the last 60 days

Kiro 0pp · Zed 0pp over 0 weekly runs.

Engine by engine

Kiro leads on 2 of 3 engines

ChatGPT

3.3%

0.9%

AI Mode

Perplexity

5.2%

KiroZed

Head to head in AI answers

1 engine answers name both brands

1Kiro ranked higher

0Zed ranked higher

Prompt	Engine	Kiro	Zed
Official website of the top AI coding assistant vendors	ChatGPT	#9	#16

Features, pricing & fit

Dimension	Kiro	Zed
Pricing model	Per seat	Per seat
Entry price	Free; paid from $20 per seat / mo	Free; paid from $10 per seat / mo
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Deployment	Desktop IDE, command-line CLI, web browser and cloud sessions	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.
Integrations	500+	—
Compliance	ISO/IEC 27001:2022 (covered under AWS certification)	—
Founded	2025	2021
Headquarters	Seattle, Washington	Boulder, Colorado
Employees	—	11–50
Funding	—	Series B · $42M raised
Best for	Developers and teams who want spec-driven development with AI agents, including enterprises that need IAM, SSO and governance controls	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.