John Rush Profile picture
Feb 25 37 tweets 14 min read Read on X
I've tried all (36) AI Coding Agents & IDEs 😵‍💫

[CreateXyz, Cursor, Softgen, Windsurf, Wrapifai, Copilot, Lovable, Bolt, v0, Replit, MarsX, AmazonQ, Pear, Devin, Github Spark, IDX, Webdraw, Claude 3.7 Sonnet & more]

The most complete list ever made:
1.
- it can clone a product when you drop the link to it
- has connections to things like the movie db, hackernews and more
- auth with one prompt

Good if you wanna create functiniing products with just a few prompts.

Create.Xyz
2.
- perhaps the best for generating mobile apps from your phone
- also it's mobile-first iteself, basically "generate mobile app from your mobile"
- produces React Native apps (not just web wrappers)
- uses Claude 3.7 Sonnet

a0.dev
3.

It took me 20 minutes to get my app done.
Compared to all other tools I've tried, softgen felt the more autonomous. I didn't have to debug things. It did it all on its own.

Softgen.ai
4.
- best for form based apps(user fills out the form and AI generates the output)
- I use it to build mini tools for SEO or lead magnets
- 100% nocode. Super easy to use. But limited to simple apps

Wrapifai.com
5. Cursor.com
- the best
- works best for coders and not such a good fit for nocoders
- can assist, autocomplete, refactor and even build entire modules/projects
Here its been asked to migrate from Tailwind v3 to v4

x.com/ericzakariasso…
6. @boltdotnew
- started as a side project of stackblitz and went huge raising $105M
- works for everyone(coders, nocoders, marketers...)
- has out of the box integration with supabase for data, auth..

I built several lead magnets using bolt

8. @lovable_dev
- fastest-growing EU based startup today ($10M ARR)
- has native supabase integration
- has the best AI+NoCode mix on the market (the wysiwyg part)
- takes in screenshots as an input and can produce full web apps

9. @windsurf_ai (works well for advanced apps. my top 3)
- acts as a true agent
- offers deepseek
- can use the web search
- has a memory.

10. GitHub Copilot ( the OG of this game, started back in 2020 )
- can generate code
- handles large codebases
- can merge PRs, fix bugs, search code

11. @Replit AI
- most advanced AI Agent for coding imho
- has two modes: Agent or Assistant
- true full stack app generator. Has its own server, db, hosting...

Here is the real app I built using it

seobotai.com/broken-link-ch…
12. v0 from Vercel
- best for making well-designed web pages or UIs
- doesn't work well for fullstack apps
- can use figma as a starting point
- lets you edit elements one by one

13. MarsX (my own product)
- a mix of AI, NoCode and High Code
- I built
@seobotai, @listingbott and @indexrusher using marsx
- it takes the whole coding world to the next level since it isn't a website builder, but "SaaS builder"

14. Devin
(I didnt manage to try this one, but someone else did, so I share their review)
- super expensive
- targets corporate world
- acts as a junior dev in a dev team

15. Webdraw
- best for people with zero coding experience
- totally genius UX
- free
- turns sketches into web apps

16. Tempo Labs
- Generates full-stack apps using a text or image prompt
- It starts by making an architecture and diagrams
- I think they have the best AI Coding UX, wow

17. Trae
- goes all the way from 0 to 1 via prompting

Building a snake game:

18. Cline
- VC code plugin
- works for large codebases
- supports any LLM
- runtime awareness

19. Databutton
- from my friends from Norway
- backed by VCs who backed one of my startups
- has very unique approach, different from most of the players
- works great for true nocoders

20. Continue dot Dev.
- an open source alternative to Cursor
- great for those who wanna build their own AI IDE (like maker from Pear AI who forked it)

Image
21. Base44
- for noncoders
- all in one
- creates dashboard-like apps pretty well

22. Qodo
- for coders
- can write tests, refactor and generate code
- supports all llms(including deepseek)

23. Amazon Q
- very few people use it
- totally lagging behind the top players

24. Caffeine AI
- new player
- too early to say anything. for now just putting them into the list to come back to them later when they launch

25. Aider
- can genereate most of the things out of prompts
- has cool terminal UI
- acts as a pair programmer
- works locally

26. Pear AI
- entered into YC
- had a huge drama around forking a github repo
- had a mentor call with them, two very talented guys taking an alternative path on competing with cursor

27. Github Spark
- works well for small or demo apps
- still behind the "waitlist" for the technical preview

28. IDX
- free alternative to cursor
- can build mobile apps
- uses gemini

29. Tabnine
- mostly works as an advanced AI Autocomplete
- slowly getting into AI code gen

30. Amazon CodeWhisperer
- can generate unit tests
- help with coding

31. Jetbrains
- I'd expect them to be leading this whole AI Cod Gen thing. Back in the day their autocomplete and resharper thing were just so cool. But somehow, they just wasted it all. I hope they catch up.

32. ChatGPT code canvas
- great for nocoders learning tocode

Building windows 95 demo:

33. Grok from Elon and X AI
- can write pretty complex code
- does really well with mini games

2D vertical jumping game. With different heroes, monsters, platforms, difficulties, and lives

34. Haystack - An IDE built on top of a canvas
- really cool and creative idea for UX of a code refactoring with AI
- also does code reviewing

35. Claude 3.7 Sonnet.
- kinda the best coding LLM at the moment

36. Claude Code
can search code, run tests, and push to GitHub.

Claude Code is a CLI tool that lets you delegate engineering tasks to Claude with full access to your codebase, tests, and GitHub - all from your terminal.
That's it.
Let me know if you know more.

Here are some of my own startups:
unicornplatform.com
listingbott.com
seobotai.com Image

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More from @johnrushx

Feb 22
After seeing these humanoid robot demos, I bet you'll be convinced that all manual labor will be gone to robots.

(even the world's oldest profession will be taken by them).

All 26 humanoid robot demos:
1. NEO Gamma (Humanoid for Home)

(black mirror episode vibes)

2. Figure Helix, another robot for home.
It can learn and reason like humans.

Read 28 tweets
Feb 21
I extracted the most common failure patterns from my 20-year-long startup journey.

(spoiler: most successful founders have done the same thing, while failed ones did many different things)

Why Startup Founders Fail:
1. Solution looking for a problem.

This one accounts for over 50% of failures I've seen & done. Founders build a solution first and then go to users, pitching it and trying to convince them they have such a problem.

The problem often isn't serious enough to change their habit.
2. They like it, but won't pay.

Happens in b2b. You start with a generous free tier or a long trial. Later, you see nobody upgrades to a paid tier.

You think you must massage the pricing model, but the product isn't usually worth paying.
Often happens to "vitamin" products.
Read 18 tweets
Feb 20
Web Agents are automating the entire class of jobs:

> fill out forms (file complaints)
> signup for things (apply for a visa)
> browse web (buy tickets)
> collect data

These AI agents are actually good for humanity - they remove the most boring jobs.

Tools I use to build them:
1. The agents typically translate user goals into browser automation.

I've tried 30+ tools for this (gonna post a dedicated thread on this topic soon). My fav so far is: .

My @listingbott agent heavily relies on these tools.

stagehand.dev
2. For web scraping, I use .

I use it to scrape the websites on my onboarding for @seobotai. It can:
- scrape home page and all subpages
- summarize using LLMs

firecrawl.dev
Read 8 tweets
Feb 16
Predictions for the Future of Startups:

[AI, Education, Parenting, Platforms, Deglobalization, AI Agents, Bio, Agro, Healthcare, Space, Governments, Onpremise, Devices, Migration, Made-by-humans, LLMs, Money, Whitelabeling, Content creators, Startups, VCs, India, Poland]
1. The AI Model race for LLMs will hit the wall.

The application layer (the wrappers and AI agents) will take the stage.
2. The typical b2b digital SaaS will be heading toward commoditization, prices will be dropping, and at some point, we may even see the b2c model, where tools are free, but the user is "the product".
Read 24 tweets
Feb 15
I acquired Unicorn Platform for $0.8M in '22.

I've literally tried every growth method I've heard of.
It all failed in 2023, but in 2024, I found what works & went 25k to 370k users.

Details report on each marketing experiment (failures & successes):

1. Partnerships with incubators.

I contacted all famous startup incubators and signed deals with most to place unicorn as a "perk" there.

I thought it'd become a passive stream of users, but I don't think I got even one paying user out of this. I canceled all these deals.
2. Paid ads.

I wasted lots of cash on this with no results.

Whatever I tried on "targeting," I'd always get a completely nonrelevant audience.

It turns out only few people get positive ROI from ads, and I wasn't one of them. I asked my founder friends, 99% had same experience
Read 23 tweets
Feb 14
AI won't replace the entire profession, but it's replacing the bottom 20-80% in {translation, design, coding, content, marketing,sales,design, operation, account, law}

Small teams like mine beat big corporations
because AI brings huge leverage for A players

Real examples of AI:
1. First AI Admaker.

It can create winning ads in minutes.
(and replace $2K-$30K in monthly costs)

Used by $100M+ revenue customers like Ridge, Jones Road, Backbone, & MUD\WTR. I personally hate ads, but I'm giving this AI a try.

2. @seobotai - world's best AI Agent for Blog & SEO.

I'm the founder and I'm the first user of this agent.

The agent went totally viral all over the internet and thousands of people tell me it's "sick", "best AI Agent they've tried" and more.

Read 17 tweets

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