# AI coding assistants for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "AI coding assistant" and as "AI pair programming tool", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/developer/ai-coding-assistants/smb

**Standing:** GitHub Copilot leads with 73% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 51 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [GitHub Copilot](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/github-copilot/index.md) | 73% | 15% | 80 |
| 2 | [Cursor](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cursor/index.md) | 12% | 15% | 65 |
| 3 | [Windsurf](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/windsurf/index.md) | 10% | 11% | 37 |
| 4 | [Cline](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cline/index.md) | 2% | 17% | 12 |
| 7 | [Claude Code](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/claude-code/index.md) | 0% | 18% | 33 |
| 8 | [Tabnine](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/tabnine/index.md) | 0% | 12% | 25 |
| 9 | [Continue](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/continue/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 10 |
| 10 | [Amazon Q Developer](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/amazon-q-developer/index.md) | 0% | 31% | 35 |
| 11 | [Replit AI](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/replit-ai/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 10 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 66 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Claude, GitHub Copilot; alternatives Amazon Q Developer, ChatGPT, Cursor, OpenAI
- GPT-5.4 mini: GitHub Copilot; alternatives Amazon Q Developer, Cursor
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Cursor; alternatives Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf
- Perplexity Sonar: GitHub Copilot; alternatives Claude Code, Cursor, Replit AI, Superblocks
- Grok 4.20: GitHub Copilot; alternatives Anthropic Claude Enterprise, Claude Code, Cursor, Tabnine
- Mistral Small: GitHub Copilot
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: GitHub Copilot; alternatives Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf
- Llama 4 Maverick: GitHub Copilot; alternatives Claude Code, Cursor, Lovable
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: GitHub Copilot; alternatives Cursor, Windsurf
- Kimi K2: GitHub Copilot; alternatives Amazon Q Developer, Cursor, Tabnine
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Windsurf; alternatives Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot
- MiniMax M2.5: Cursor, GitHub Copilot; alternatives Amazon Q Developer
- GPT-6 Luna: GitHub Copilot; alternatives Cursor, OpenAI Codex
- Muse Glimmer 30B: GitHub Copilot; alternatives Cline, Continue, Cursor, Devin

## Sources the answers cite

71 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- github.com: 31 answers, 55 citations
- dev.to: 31 answers, 44 citations
- gane.ai/index: 23 answers, 24 citations
- docs.github.com: 13 answers, 30 citations
- getorchestra.io: 12 answers, 13 citations
- superblocks.com: 10 answers, 12 citations
- daily.dev: 10 answers, 11 citations
- tmcnet.com: 10 answers, 10 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://gane.ai/index/it/developer/ai-coding-assistants/smb (23 answers)
- https://getorchestra.io/guides/ai-assistants-coding (12 answers)
- https://dev.to/paullovelace/7-ai-coding-assistants-tested-honest-ranking-october-2026-2ehd (11 answers)
- https://tmcnet.com/topics/articles/2026/10/21/464323-best-ai-coding-assistants-software-developers-comparison.htm (10 answers)
- https://ai-plaza.io/blog/2026-top-5-ai-coding-assistants-for-small-businesses-ranked-for-real-productivity-and-revenue-impact (9 answers)
- https://github.com/features/copilot (9 answers)
- https://checkmarx.com/learn/ai-security/ai-coding-assistants-the-basics-and-15-tools-to-know (7 answers)
- https://resources.rework.com/tools/ai-tools/best-ai-coding-tools-2026 (7 answers)
- https://blog.n8n.io/ai-coding-assistants (6 answers)
- https://bsi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/EN/BSI/KI/ANSSI_BSI_AI_Coding_Assistants.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=5 (6 answers)

## Warned against

- GitHub Copilot: 12 of 80 labels negative. "If data privacy is a top concern, you might want to avoid cloud-based models that store or analyze code externally." Examples listed are "GitHub Copilot (Uses OpenAI models, processes via Microsoft servers)" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Amazon Q Developer: 11 of 35 labels negative. "The researchers extracted 2,702 valid credentials from GitHub Copilot and 129 from Amazon CodeWhisperer using clever prompts." (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Cursor: 10 of 65 labels negative. "Cursor with Privacy Mode off—or with agent features you haven't reviewed... it may use and store codebase data" (GPT-6 Luna, negative prompt)
- Claude Code: 6 of 33 labels negative. "Claude Code on personal Free, Pro, or Max accounts when data sharing is enabled... Don't assume a personal subscription has the same protections as a work account." (GPT-6 Luna, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: GitHub Copilot at 73%.

- GitHub Copilot: 63% to 73%, +10. Inside the floor by 1 point · rank 1 of 66, unchanged.
- Windsurf: 19% to 10%, −9. Inside the floor by 2 points · rank 2 → 3 of 66.
- Tabnine: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 4 → 8 of 66.
- Cursor: 13% to 12%, −1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 3 → 2 of 66.
- Cline: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 5 → 4 of 66.
- Claude Code: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 7 of 66, unchanged.
- Continue: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 12 → 9 of 66.
- Amazon Q Developer: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 11 → 10 of 66.
- Replit AI: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 37 → 11 of 66.
- ChatGPT: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 38 → 45 of 66.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.