# Claude Code alternatives: what AI models name instead, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. 208 of the 252 answers in the 1 category where Claude Code holds a standing named it neither first nor as an alternative; these are the first choices those answers made. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/vendors/claude-code/alternatives/

## Named instead, most often (every category and segment added)

- GitHub Copilot: 109
- Windsurf: 19
- Tabnine: 18
- Cursor: 7
- Amazon Q Developer: 6
- AWS Kiro: 1

## AI coding assistants

**Small business**: 67 of 84 answers did not name Claude Code (Claude Code is #5 of 7 at 0%).

- GitHub Copilot: first choice in 34 of those 67
- Windsurf: first choice in 12 of those 67
- Cursor: first choice in 7 of those 67
- Tabnine: first choice in 5 of those 67
- AWS Q Developer: first choice in 1 of those 67
- Cline: first choice in 1 of those 67
- GitHub Copilot for Business: first choice in 1 of those 67

**Mid-market**: 66 of 84 answers did not name Claude Code (Claude Code is #6 of 9 at 0%).

- GitHub Copilot: first choice in 34 of those 66
- Windsurf: first choice in 7 of those 66
- Tabnine: first choice in 6 of those 66
- Amazon Q Developer: first choice in 2 of those 66
- Gemini Code Assist: first choice in 1 of those 66
- Kilo Code: first choice in 1 of those 66
- Sourcegraph Cody: first choice in 1 of those 66

**Enterprise**: 75 of 84 answers did not name Claude Code (Claude Code is #8 of 9 at 0%).

- GitHub Copilot: first choice in 41 of those 75
- Tabnine: first choice in 7 of those 75
- Amazon Q Developer: first choice in 4 of those 75
- AWS Kiro: first choice in 1 of those 75
- Tongyi Lingma: first choice in 1 of those 75

Published under CC BY 4.0. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.