Claude Code vs Devin Desktop
Claude Code (Anthropic) and Devin Desktop (Cognition) side by side on public data, as of Oct 10, 2026.
Claude Code shipped 76 stable releases in the past 90 days.
Which should you choose?
Choose Claude Code if
- you want to use your own model API key
- you work in the terminal
- you want to work from a browser
- you want to check in from your phone
- you are on Windows
- you want to run it unattended in scripts or CI
Choose Devin Desktop if
- you want to start free: it has a free tier, Claude Code does not
- you want to switch between model providers (7 documented against 3)
- steady service matters most: 1 incidents on its status page in 30 days against 8
Built from documented features, official prices, status pages and usage data on this page; it does not judge output quality.
Side-by-side numbers
| Metric | Claude Code | Devin Desktop |
|---|---|---|
| Gid Score | 81 | 15 |
| Overall rank | #3 | #278 |
| Downloads, last 7 days | 12.2M | — |
| Downloads, 7-day change | down 15.4% | — |
| Downloads, 30-day change | down 24.3% | — |
| VS Code installs | 27.4M | — |
| Marketplace rating | 3.7 / 5 (899) | — |
| GitHub stars | 150K | — |
| Homebrew installs, 30 days | 38.8K | 341 |
| Hacker News mentions, 30 days | 1,433 | 17 |
| Latest stable release | 2.1.296 · yesterday | — |
| Stable releases, 90 days | 76 | |
| Terminal-Bench (best run) | 64.8% · v4.0 | — |
| Price | $20/mo | Free + $20/mo |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| First released | February 2025 | November 2024 |
| Interfaces | CLI, IDE extension, Desktop, Web, Mobile, SDK | Desktop IDE, IDE plugin |
| Models | Anthropic Claude models via Claude plans, a Console API key or supported third-party cloud providers | Frontier models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and SpaceXAI plus open-source models, and Cognition's own SWE-2 (free in Devin Desktop and CLI through 2026-10-16). |
Trends
Claude Code
Anthropic's agentic coding tool that reads a codebase, edits files and runs commands from the terminal, with VS Code and JetBrains integrations plus desktop, web and mobile access. It runs Claude models through a Claude subscription, an Anthropic Console API key or supported third-party cloud providers.
Pricing: Claude Code is now included in Pro ($17/month annual, $20/month monthly) and Max ($100-$200/month) plans. Free tier does not include Claude Code. Team plans available with standard seats at $20/seat/month annual ($25 monthly) and premium seats at $100/seat/month annual ($125 monthly). Enterprise plans available with custom pricing.
Latest release 2.1.296:
- Added a code key to the Claude apps gateway's managed.policies[]: the same settings as cli, also applied in Claude Desktop's Code tab; beside desktop, it turns on Claude Desktop's gateway mode
- Added autoCompactWindow to subagent frontmatter and --agents definitions, so a subagent can auto-compact earlier than the main conversation's window
- Added CLAUDECODEWORKFLOWSUBAGENTMODEL to run every workflow agent on one model while other subagents keep theirs
- Added CLAUDECODEOVERLOADEDRETRYMAXDELAYMS environment variable to set a longer maximum delay for the backoff when retrying an overloaded (529) request
Devin Desktop
Agentic IDE from Cognition, built on the Windsurf editor, that adds an Agent Command Center for managing local and cloud coding agents and supports third-party agents through the Agent Client Protocol. A JetBrains plugin continues under the Windsurf name.
Pricing: Free $0 (light quota, unlimited Tab and inline edits); Pro $20/mo; Max $200/mo; Teams $80/mo plus $40/mo per full seat (up to 200 users); Enterprise custom. Extra usage is bought at API pricing; the same plans cover Devin Cloud.
Claude Code vs Devin Desktop: common questions
How do Claude Code and Devin Desktop prices compare?
Claude Code: $20/mo. Devin Desktop: Free + $20/mo. Prices come from each vendor's pricing page.
Which is more popular, Claude Code or Devin Desktop?
Claude Code has a Gid Score of 81 against 15 for Devin Desktop. The score combines package downloads, editor installs, GitHub activity and attention, updated daily.
Which has had fewer outages recently, Claude Code or Devin Desktop?
In the last 30 days Claude Code's status page listed 8 incidents and Devin Desktop's listed 1. Counts come from each official status page.