claude-code vs cline
claude-code is much bigger: 144.1k stars against 67.5k. Over the days we have tracked them claude-code moved +4.4% and cline +4.3%, so claude-code is growing faster right now.
cline leads on context depth and noise control and customization and privacy and model freedom. claude-code does not take any axis by a clear margin.
Stars and commit dates come from our own daily tracking. The six axes are read off each project's documentation by our review pipeline, so they describe what a project says about itself, not what we measured in its code.
Where they stand today
A terminal-first agent that executes routine coding tasks and integrates git workflows, plus @claude GitHub tagging.
- Stars
- 144.1k
- Tracked growth
- +4.4%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 15h ago
- Language
- Python
- License
- none declared
- Cost to run
- Anthropic cloud; see docs
Provides a unified, extensible SDK + CLI + editor integrations with multi-agent Kanban and real shell command execution for coordinated, project-wide edits.
- Stars
- 67.5k
- Tracked growth
- +4.3%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 2h ago
- Language
- TypeScript
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Cost to run
- Bring-your-own API key or run local models
Six axes, head to head
Each axis runs 0 to 5. The label under a score is what that project's own docs claim, not a category average.
| Axis | claude-code | cline |
|---|---|---|
Context depth How much of your codebase it sees before it answers: the open diff, the diff plus related files, or the whole repository. | ●●●●● Diff / file only | ●●●●● Whole-repo analysis |
Noise control How it keeps output volume down — severity thresholds, deduplication, incremental runs over new commits only. | ●●●●● No noise controls | ●●●●● Human-in-loop + rules |
Customization How far it bends to your team: custom rules, prompts, style guides, per-path config. | ●●●●● Plugins & config | ●●●●● Project rules & plugins |
Privacy Whether your code stays on your own infrastructure: fully local, self-hostable, or cloud API only. | ●●●●● Cloud service only | ●●●●● Can run fully local |
Model freedom Whether you can point it at any provider, or it is wired to one. | ●●●●● Anthropic only | ●●●●● Any provider / local models |
Setup ease What it takes to get a first useful run out of it. | ●●●●● One-command install | ●●●●● One-command install |
Which one to pick
Pick claude-code if…
Easy setup — install with one command to get a local, terminal-native coding assistant that helps with git workflows and code explanation.
Pick cline if…
Flexible model support — use any provider or run local models, with an extensible SDK, editor plugins, and CLI for controlled, project-wide code changes.
- Context depth: Whole-repo analysis (5/5 against 1/5)
- Noise control: Human-in-loop + rules (4/5 against 1/5)
- Customization: Project rules & plugins (5/5 against 3/5)
- Privacy: Can run fully local (5/5 against 2/5)
- Model freedom: Any provider / local models (5/5 against 1/5)
What people want from each one
anthropics/claude-code
Hacker News: Issue: Claude Code is unusable for complex engineering tasks with Feb updates drew 1364 points and 753 comments.
cline/cline
Hacker News: Using AI for Coding: My Journey with Cline and LLMs drew 198 points and 91 comments.
- "Cline uses complex prompts and iterative task execution that may be challenging for less capable models. For best results, it's recommended to use Claude 4 Sonnet for its advanced agentic coding capabilities." 👍 57
- Cline JetBrains plugin is unable to work with two or more open IDEA projects (Windows). 👍 12
- Fix File Editing Tool Reliability - replace_in_file, write_to_file, and Diff Failures 👍 12
Questions people ask
Is claude-code better than cline?
cline leads on context depth and noise control and customization and privacy and model freedom. claude-code does not take any axis by a clear margin. claude-code is worth picking when easy setup — install with one command to get a local, terminal-native coding assistant that helps with git workflows and code explanation.
Which of claude-code and cline keeps my code private?
claude-code: Cloud service only (2/5). cline: Can run fully local (5/5).
What does each one cost to run?
claude-code: Anthropic cloud; see docs. cline: Bring-your-own API key or run local models.
Full profiles: anthropics/claude-code and cline/cline. Everything else in CLI coding agents.