Index › Developer platform › AI coding › Small business › September 2026 Edition

AI coding assistants for small business buyers

Asked as “AI coding assistant”, and as “AI pair programming tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 43 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.

Standing

GitHub Copilot

Clear leader

65% of first choices, clear leader.

ShowinginAll 67 categories →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

Small business

GitHub Copilot65%Clear leaderThis page Mid-market

GitHub Copilot67%Clear leaderStanding →Enterprise

GitHub Copilot95%ConsensusStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.

ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant

GitHub Copilot14%71endorsed leader

Windsurf12%49accepted challenger

Cursor17%60accepted challenger

Amazon Q Developer25%24criticized challenger

Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate

Claude Code22%18accepted challenger

Tabnine6%36accepted challenger

Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.

Head to head

GitHub Copilot vs Windsurf GitHub Copilot vs Cursor Windsurf vs Cursor

One product takes 65% of first choices here, so the chart would put five markers in one corner and one at the far edge. The two measurements it plots are columns in the standing above: share, and the negative label rate. One product carries a negative rate above 25% in this category. Jump to the standing

02What they warned about

Seven of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick and GLM 4.7 FlashX changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.

GitHub Copilot

14%

10 of 71 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 4 hard negative

“Free, Pro, Pro+ plans use your code, prompts, and context for training models by default... risk IP exposure to competitors.” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt

Cursor

17%

10 of 60 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 2 hard negative

“Privacy Mode (no training on data) is **off by default** for non-enterprise. Recent IDEsaster flaws (CVE-2025-49150) allow prompt injection for data exfil/RCE.” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt

Windsurf

12%

6 of 49 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 1 hard negative

“Enterprise version safer, but free appeals to cost-conscious SMBs—avoid without verifying opt-outs.” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt

Amazon Q Developer

25%

6 of 24 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 2 hard negative

“Any Unvetted Free/Open AI Tools (e.g., lesser-known like Amazon Q Developer Free, Replit AI)**: High malware/fake tool risks” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

64 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 815 links across 308 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

axify.io

21 answers · 21 citations · 9 models

dev.to

19 answers · 23 citations · 8 models

tech-insider.org

19 answers · 21 citations · 8 models

learn.g2.com

19 answers · 19 citations · 9 models

memeburn.com

15 answers · 15 citations · 8 models

zapier.com

vendor site · Zapier15 answers · 15 citations · 9 models

g2.com

14 answers · 14 citations · 9 models

layer3labs.io

13 answers · 13 citations · 7 models

aionx.co

12 answers · 12 citations · 7 models

augmentcode.com

vendor site · Augment Code11 answers · 14 citations · 7 models

techsifted.com

11 answers · 13 citations · 9 models

resources.rework.com

11 answers · 12 citations · 5 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

axify.io/blog/the-best-ai-coding-assistants-a-full-comparison-of-20-tools

21 answers · 9 models

learn.g2.com/best-ai-coding-assistants

19 answers · 9 models

tech-insider.org/best-ai-coding-assistants-2026

16 answers · 7 models

memeburn.com/best-ai-coding-tools

15 answers · 8 models

zapier.com/blog/ai-coding-tools

15 answers · 9 models

aionx.co/ai-comparisons/ai-coding-assistants-compared

12 answers · 7 models

g2.com/categories/ai-coding-assistants/small-business

12 answers · 9 models

getapp.com/all-software/ai-coding-assistants/org/small-business

8 answers · 8 models

replit.com/discover/best-ai-coding-assistant

8 answers · 4 models

layer3labs.io/guides/best-ai-coding-tools-for-business

7 answers · 6 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.

ModelDirect“What is the best AI coding assistant for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which AI pair programming tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top AI coding assistants for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best AI coding assistant for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating an AI coding assistant. What should we look at?”Negative“Which AI coding assistants should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”

Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceGitHub CopilotChanged

One alternative

Cursor

Four alternatives

Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Tabnine, Windsurf

GitHub Copilot

Two alternatives

Amazon Q Developer, Cursor

no first choicenothing named

GPT-5.4 miniGitHub Copilot

Two alternatives

Cursor, OpenAI Codex

GitHub CopilotHeld

One alternative

Microsoft 365 Copilot for Business

GitHub Copilot

Three alternatives

Cursor, Gemini Code Assist, JetBrains AI Assistant

GitHub Copilot

One alternative

Cursor

no first choicenothing named

Gemini 3.5 FlashCursor

Three alternatives

Amazon Q Developer, GitHub Copilot, Tabnine

GitHub CopilotChanged

Two alternatives

Cursor, Tabnine

against: ChatGPTCursor

Four alternatives

Claude Code, Continue, Devin, GitHub Copilot

Continue

Four alternatives

Cursor, DeepSeek, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf

Cursor, GitHub Copilot

Two alternatives

Continue, Tabnine

against: ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, Google Gemini, Windsurf

Perplexity SonarGitHub Copilot

Three alternatives

Claude Code, Cline, Cursor

GitHub CopilotHeld

Two alternatives

Cursor, Windsurf

Cursor, GitHub Copilot

Two alternatives

Claude Code, Tabnine

GitHub Copilot

Three alternatives

Aider, Cursor, Windsurf

no first choicenothing named

Grok 4.1 FastGitHub Copilot

Two alternatives

Cursor, Windsurf

GitHub CopilotHeld

One alternative

Windsurf

against: CursorCursor, GitHub Copilot

Three alternatives

Amazon Q Developer, Tabnine, Windsurf

Windsurf

One alternative

GitHub Copilot

against: CursorCursor, GitHub Copilot

Two alternatives

Tabnine, Windsurf

against: Amazon Q Developer, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Replit AI, Windsurf, Zed

Mistral SmallGitHub Copilot

One alternative

Cursor

GitHub CopilotHeld

Two alternatives

Cursor, Windsurf

GitHub Copilot

Four alternatives

Claude Code, Cursor, Replit AI, Windsurf

GitHub Copilot

Two alternatives

Cline, Windsurf

no first choiceagainst: GitHub Copilot

DeepSeek V4 FlashWindsurf

Three alternatives

Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Tabnine

GitHub CopilotChanged

One alternative

Tabnine

GitHub Copilot

Three alternatives

Claude Code, Cursor, Tabnine

against: WindsurfGitHub Copilot

Two alternatives

Cursor, Windsurf

against: Amazon Q Developer, Gemini Code Assistno first choiceagainst: Bolt, Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Lovable, Replit AI, v0

Llama 4 MaverickGitHub Copilot

One alternative

Cursor

Cursor, WindsurfChanged

One alternative

GitHub Copilot

Cursor

Four alternatives

Cline, GitHub Copilot, Kilo Code, Qwen3-Coder

GitHub Copilot

Two alternatives

Cline, Windsurf

no first choice

Four alternatives

Amazon Q Developer, Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot

against: Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf

Qwen 3.7 FlashGitHub Copilot

Two alternatives

Cursor, Tabnine

against: Amazon Q DeveloperGitHub CopilotHeld

One alternative

Tabnine

Cursor, GitHub Copilot

Two alternatives

Sourcegraph Cody, Tabnine

Amazon Q Developer, Windsurf

Two alternatives

Cursor, GitHub Copilot

no first choiceagainst: Amazon Kiro, Amazon Q Developer, Bolt.new, Claude Code, Cursor, Devin, GitHub Copilot, Google Antigravity IDE, Loveable, Replit Agent, Tabnine, Windsurf, v0.dev

Kimi K2GitHub Copilot

Two alternatives

Cursor, Tabnine

GitHub CopilotHeld

One alternative

Cursor

Cursor, GitHub Copilot

Three alternatives

Claude Code, Tabnine, Windsurf

Windsurf

Two alternatives

GitHub Copilot, Tabnine

GitHub Copilot

Two alternatives

Cursor, Windsurf

against: Amazon Q Developer, ChatGPT, Cursor, GitHub Copilot

GLM 4.7 FlashXGitHub Copilot

Five alternatives

Amazon Q Developer, Claude Code, Cursor, Tabnine, Windsurf

WindsurfChanged

Two alternatives

GitHub Copilot, Tabnine

GitHub Copilot

Five alternatives

Cursor, Replit AI, Sourcegraph Cody, Tabnine, Windsurf

Amazon Q Developer, Windsurf

One alternative

Continue.dev with Ollama

against: GitHub Copilot, Tabnineno first choiceagainst: Amazon Q Developer, Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Trae

MiniMax M2.5GitHub Copilot

One alternative

Cursor

GitHub CopilotHeld

Three alternatives

Amazon Q Developer, JetBrains AI, Tabnine

GitHub Copilot

Three alternatives

Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf

Windsurf

Two alternatives

GitHub Copilot, Tabnine

no first choiceagainst: ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf

Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record

Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.

Prompt	Model	Version string	Time (UTC)	Searched	Sources	Latency
Direct recommendation	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 08:20	no	0	4 s
Direct recommendation	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 08:19	yes	3	6 s
Direct recommendation	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 09:06	yes	10	22 s
Direct recommendation	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 08:21	yes	20	5 s
Direct recommendation	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 08:17	yes	17	9 s
Direct recommendation	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 08:49	yes	5	4 s
Direct recommendation	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 09:11	yes	18	16 s
Direct recommendation	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 08:48	yes	5	3 s
Direct recommendation	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 08:44	yes	10	60 s
Direct recommendation	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 08:32	yes	19	31 s
Direct recommendation	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 08:24	yes	10	46 s
Direct recommendation	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 08:38	yes	8	18 s
Paraphrase	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 08:47	yes	18	9 s
Paraphrase	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 09:04	yes	2	4 s
Paraphrase	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 09:02	yes	19	22 s
Paraphrase	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 09:00	yes	20	5 s
Paraphrase	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 09:01	yes	41	16 s
Paraphrase	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 08:56	yes	5	4 s
Paraphrase	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 08:36	yes	20	19 s
Paraphrase	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 08:24	yes	5	3 s
Paraphrase	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 08:23	yes	5	32 s
Paraphrase	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 08:36	yes	15	24 s
Paraphrase	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 08:43	yes	25	36 s
Paraphrase	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 08:51	yes	5	67 s
Comparative	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 09:09	yes	9	10 s
Comparative	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 08:34	yes	4	7 s
Comparative	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 09:08	yes	21	28 s
Comparative	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 08:42	yes	20	8 s
Comparative	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 09:03	yes	46	17 s
Comparative	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 08:37	yes	5	7 s
Comparative	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 08:55	yes	20	20 s
Comparative	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 09:06	yes	5	2 s
Comparative	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 08:50	no	0	44 s
Comparative	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 08:23	yes	10	35 s
Comparative	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 08:20	yes	10	66 s
Comparative	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 08:48	yes	5	21 s
Budget constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 08:54	no	0	5 s
Budget constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 08:16	yes	3	6 s
Budget constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 08:59	yes	16	23 s
Budget constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 08:19	yes	20	6 s
Budget constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 08:46	yes	18	9 s
Budget constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 08:30	yes	5	6 s
Budget constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 08:22	yes	9	16 s
Budget constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 08:19	yes	5	2 s
Budget constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 08:45	no	0	40 s
Budget constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 08:20	yes	10	22 s
Budget constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 08:47	yes	30	144 s
Budget constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 08:18	yes	10	16 s
Scale constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 08:46	no	0	5 s
Scale constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 08:51	no	0	7 s
Scale constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 08:21	yes	10	23 s
Scale constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 08:26	yes	20	7 s
Scale constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 09:04	yes	20	11 s
Scale constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 09:10	no	0	6 s
Scale constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 08:20	yes	15	18 s
Scale constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 08:44	yes	5	4 s
Scale constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 09:09	no	0	40 s
Scale constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 08:27	yes	15	39 s
Scale constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 08:45	yes	15	115 s
Scale constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 08:27	yes	5	28 s
Negative framing	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 09:12	yes	18	10 s
Negative framing	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 08:39	yes	3	11 s
Negative framing	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 08:42	yes	14	26 s
Negative framing	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 08:24	yes	20	6 s
Negative framing	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 09:06	yes	43	16 s
Negative framing	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 09:12	yes	5	6 s
Negative framing	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 09:10	yes	26	28 s
Negative framing	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 08:58	yes	5	2 s
Negative framing	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 08:30	yes	19	92 s
Negative framing	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 08:58	yes	19	70 s
Negative framing	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 08:41	yes	29	53 s
Negative framing	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 09:05	yes	13	44 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings

Amazon Q read as Amazon Q Developer

Copilot Free read as GitHub Copilot

Replit read as Replit AI

Unresolved, counted raw

Amazon Kiro

Base44

Bolt

Bolt.new

CodeLlama

Continue.dev with Ollama

Lovable

Loveable

Microsoft 365 Copilot for Business

Open-source LLMs (self-hosted)

StarCoder

Tongyi Lingma

Trae (ByteDance)

v0.dev

Discontinued, still offered

No shut-down product was recommended here.

AI coding assistants for small business buyers

By buyer segment

01The standing

02What they warned about

03What they cite

Sites the answers cite

Pages the answers cite

04How they answered

05The record

Normalization in this category

Also in developer platform