Coding · Head-to-head

Amazon Q Developer vs Zed

Amazon Q Developer (freemium, AI Score 7.9/10) vs Zed (freemium, AI Score 8.4/10). Side-by-side pricing, features, pros and cons, and which to pick.

The verdict

Pick Amazon Q Developer if…

→your primary use case is platform and backend teams already running on aws who need legacy java, .net or mainframe migrations automated, and who want an assistant that can query live account resources rather than only the repository.
→you need: productivity

Try Amazon Q Developer →

Pick Zed if…

→overall capability matters more than price (AI Score 8.4 vs 7.9)
→your primary use case is developers on macos or linux who want a fast, fully open-source editor and would rather plug in claude code or their own api keys than accept a bundled ai subscription.

Try Zed →

Spec	Amazon Q Developer	Zed
Category	Coding	Coding
Pricing model	freemium	freemium
Headline pricing	Free tier + Pro $19/user/mo	Free open-source editor; hosted AI paid tier — check site for current rates
Free tier	Usable free tier accessible with only an AWS Builder ID — no AWS account or card required — covering chat, inline suggestions and security scanning under monthly request quotas.	The editor itself is free and open source under GPL-3.0 with nothing held back for paying users. Hosted AI carries a free monthly allowance; past it you either subscribe or supply your own API keys.
AI Score	7.9/10	8.4/10
Best for	Platform and backend teams already running on AWS who need legacy Java, .NET or mainframe migrations automated, and who want an assistant that can query live account resources rather than only the repository.	Developers on macOS or Linux who want a fast, fully open-source editor and would rather plug in Claude Code or their own API keys than accept a bundled AI subscription.
Editor's pick	—	—
Use cases	development agents productivity	development agents
Date added	2026-05-01	2026-05-02

Coding · freemium

✓Transformation agents cover legacy migrations — Java versions, .NET Framework, mainframe COBOL, VMware — that no general-purpose coding assistant attempts
✓Works against live AWS account resources from the Console and CLI, not just files in a repository
✓Free tier needs only an AWS Builder ID, so it can be evaluated without an AWS account or a card
✓Pro includes IP indemnification for generated suggestions, which matters to legal review at larger companies
✓CLI agent supports MCP servers, so it plugs into the same tool ecosystem as rival agents

×Code generation and agent quality trail Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and Copilot agent mode for everyday application work
×AWS now sells Kiro as a separate agentic IDE, leaving two overlapping products and real ambiguity about Q Developer's roadmap priority
×Most of the value evaporates if your infrastructure is not on AWS
×Free-tier request quotas have been revised repeatedly, making the free experience hard to plan around

Coding · freemium

✓Fastest mainstream editor — GPU-rendered UI keeps input latency and large-file scrolling ahead of every Electron-based competitor
✓ACP lets you run Claude Code or Gemini CLI inside the editor with proper diff review instead of in a separate terminal
✓Genuinely open source end to end, including Zeta, the edit-prediction model behind its completions
✓Debugger, git panel, terminal and real-time collaboration are built in, so there is no extension stack to assemble
✓Model choice is yours — hosted plan, your own API keys, or fully local through Ollama and LM Studio

×Extension catalogue is a fraction of the VS Code marketplace that Cursor and Windsurf inherit for free
×Zed's own agent is competent but no longer distinctive next to Cursor or dedicated terminal agents — a lot of the value depends on which external agent you plug in
×Windows support trails macOS and Linux in maturity
×Hosted AI billing has been reworked more than once, which makes cost planning harder than on a flat-rate competitor

Updated 2026-08-10. Spec data sourced from official product pages and tracked in our public directory at /tools.