Amazon Q Developer
AWS-backed AI assistant for code generation, transformation, security scanning, and deep cloud infrastructure integration.
Overview
Amazon Q Developer is AWS's AI-powered coding assistant, and it's a different animal from most code completion tools. While it handles the standard inline suggestions and chat-based coding help you'd expect, its real strength is how deeply it understands AWS services. Ask it to set up an S3 bucket with proper IAM policies, configure a Lambda function, or troubleshoot a CloudFormation template, and it delivers answers that reflect actual AWS best practices rather than generic suggestions.
The tool supports code generation across 15+ languages with IDE plugins for VS Code, JetBrains, and Visual Studio. But the standout features are its code transformation capabilities — it can upgrade Java applications across major versions, migrate .NET Framework projects to cross-platform .NET, and handle the tedious refactoring that normally takes teams weeks. Its security scanning catches vulnerabilities and suggests fixes inline, going beyond just flagging issues.
Amazon Q Developer also works in the AWS Console and CLI, meaning you can ask natural language questions about your running infrastructure, generate CLI commands, and get contextual help without leaving your workflow. For teams already on AWS, the integration depth is unmatched. For teams not on AWS, much of that advantage disappears.
Key features
Code Generation
Inline code suggestions and full function generation across 15+ programming languages. Understands project context and AWS SDK patterns for cloud-native development.
Security Scanning
Automated security vulnerability detection with remediation suggestions. Scans for OWASP Top 10 issues, secrets exposure, and AWS-specific misconfigurations in infrastructure code.
AWS Integration
Deep integration with AWS Console, CLI, and 200+ AWS services. Generate infrastructure-as-code, troubleshoot deployments, and get contextual help for any AWS resource.
Code Transformation
Automates major language and framework upgrades — Java 8 to 17, .NET Framework to .NET Core, and more. Handles dependency updates, API changes, and test validation.
Pricing
Free tier: Generous free tier with code completion, chat, and 50 security scans per month
| Plan | Price | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier | Free | Code suggestions, chat, security scanning (50 scans/mo), limited transformations |
| Pro | $19/user/mo | Unlimited suggestions, advanced agents, higher limits on transformations and security scans |
Code suggestions, chat, security scanning (50 scans/mo), limited transformations
Unlimited suggestions, advanced agents, higher limits on transformations and security scans
Pros & cons
Pros
- ✓Unmatched AWS integration — understands cloud infrastructure, not just application code
- ✓Generous free tier with real functionality including security scanning
- ✓Code transformation automates painful language and framework upgrades
- ✓Works across IDE, AWS Console, and CLI for a unified experience
Cons
- ×Much less useful if you're not building on AWS
- ×Code completion quality trails GitHub Copilot and Cursor for general-purpose coding
- ×IDE plugin can feel slower than competitors for inline suggestions
- ×Transformation feature currently limited to Java and .NET upgrades
How it compares
| Tool | Best for | Pricing | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Q Developer | — | Free tier + Pro $19/user/mo | 8.8/10 |
| Cursor | — | Freemium | 9.5/10 |
| GitHub Copilot | — | From $10/mo | 9.3/10 |
| Windsurf | — | Freemium | 9.1/10 |