# Cline: how AI models rank it, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Named in 11 judge labels across 1 category by 8 of 14 models. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cline

## Standing by category

| Category | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [AI coding assistants](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/developer/ai-coding-assistants/index.md) | 2% | 7 | 9% | 11 |

## What the models said for it

- "Start by installing Cline (in VS Code) or Aider (in terminal)" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, AI coding)
- "Lowest-cost flexible option: Cline or Aider — The tools are free, but the company pays separately for model usage" (Perplexity Sonar, AI coding)
- "Winners: Cline / Aider + Open Source Models ... You install tools like Cline or Aider. These run locally." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, AI coding)
- "Another free, open-source tool that is vendor-independent and allows you to bring your own API key." (Llama 4 Maverick, AI coding)

## And against it

- "Be cautious about these types of tools in sensitive environments... Tools like Cline" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, AI coding)

## By model

| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Warning | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Grok 4.20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |

## Sources returned with these answers

The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Cline, from 23 of the 23 answers that named it (only the models that return a source list).

### Domains cited

- dev.to: 13
- github.com: 12
- getorchestra.io: 9
- daily.dev: 7
- superblocks.com: 7
- toolradar.com: 7
- gane.ai/index: 6
- sourcegraph.com: 6
- resources.rework.com: 5
- ai-plaza.io: 4

### Pages cited

- https://dev.to/paullovelace/7-ai-coding-assistants-tested-honest-ranking-october-2026-2ehd: 9
- https://getorchestra.io/guides/ai-assistants-coding: 9
- https://www.gane.ai/index/it/developer/ai-coding-assistants/smb: 6
- https://sourcegraph.com/blog/best-ai-coding-assistant: 6
- https://resources.rework.com/tools/ai-tools/best-ai-coding-tools-2026: 5
- https://ai-plaza.io/blog/2026-top-5-ai-coding-assistants-for-small-businesses-ranked-for-real-productivity-and-revenue-impact: 4
- https://daily.dev/blog/best-ai-coding-assistants-comparison: 4
- https://superblocks.com/blog/best-ai-coding-tools: 4

## In its own words

What Cline's own pages state, read 2026-09-28. Stated by the vendor, not checked by the index.

- Positioning: The Open Coding Agent (https://cline.bot/)
- For: developers and engineering teams (https://cline.bot/)
- Price stated: 0 USD (https://cline.bot/)
- Starting price: 0 (https://cline.bot/)
- Free plan or trial: free (https://cline.bot/)

## What it publishes

Every page cline.bot exposes, read 2026-09-29: 243 addresses. By kind, pages and the last 90 days:

- blog: 99 pages, 9 in the last 90 days, latest 2026-09-14
- report or ebook: 8 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest undated
- comparison: 2 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest 2025-09-23
- Recent: 2026-09-14 blog: Cline desktop an open source app for open weight models https://cline.bot/blog/cline-desktop-an-open-source-app-for-open-weight-models
- Recent: 2026-09-02 blog: How we migrated 11 million users to clines biggest harness upgrade https://cline.bot/blog/how-we-migrated-11-million-users-to-clines-biggest-harness-upgrade
- Recent: 2026-08-26 blog: Deepseek wins imo gold on 12 cents https://cline.bot/blog/deepseek-wins-imo-gold-on-12-cents
- Recent: 2026-08-26 blog: Building a code review agent with cline sdk https://cline.bot/blog/building-a-code-review-agent-with-cline-sdk
- Recent: 2026-08-18 blog: Open sourcing evals for open weight agents https://cline.bot/blog/open-sourcing-evals-for-open-weight-agents
- Recent: 2026-08-11 blog: Nvidia nemotron 3 5 lightning available in cline https://cline.bot/blog/nvidia-nemotron-3-5-lightning-available-in-cline

## 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.