Aider: what developers actually say
We read every Hacker News comment from Nov 2025 – Nov 2026 that gave a real opinion on Aider. 35 of the 34 opinions come from people who say they use it themselves.
Aider holds 60% approval across 34 opinions from 39 authors, 35 of them firsthand. Developers praise code quality (5 positive, 1 negative) and large-codebase work (3 to 1), plus a git-based review loop and low cost; one built a Chrome extension for about $28 in API credits. UX is the weak spot (1 positive, 3 negative), and Claude Code is the most named alternative at 6 mentions. Monthly approval swings: 86% in February 2026 on 7 opinions, 33% in March on 3, 88% in August on 4, 50% in September on 1, and no 90-day figure is available.
Pick it if
- Want each edit committed to git for review
- Work in small, well-scoped tasks and watch API spend
- Want local data and .gitignore handling respected
Look elsewhere if
- Need polished interactive UX
- Plan to run small local models
- Want the option developers most often name as better, Claude Code
Strengths and weaknesses
Each row counts opinions that mentioned the topic. Bars to the right of the line are praise, bars to the left are complaints.
How opinion has moved
What developers say
Praise
Complaints
Summaries are paraphrased. Each links to the original comment.
Aider compared
Best Aider alternatives, according to developers who switched →
FAQ
Is Aider worth it?
Approval is 60% across 34 opinions. Code quality leans positive at 5 to 1, while UX leans negative at 1 to 3. Some developers use it daily; others discarded it over busywork or errors.
Is Aider better than Claude Code?
The data leans no. Claude Code is named 6 times as the tool developers moved to, and Aider is preferred over Claude Code once.
Is Aider expensive?
Cost reports are mixed. One developer built a working Chrome extension for about $28 in API credits, while another quit after using 2M tokens a day on a Python project and a third left over API rates.