Amazon Q Developer
Continue
| Feature | Amazon Q Developer | Continue |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $19/mo | Free only |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.1 / 5 | 4.3 / 5 |
| Best For | aws-developers, enterprise, security-conscious-teams, cloud-engineers | developers, open-source-advocates, privacy-focused-devs, self-hosters |
| Founded | 2022 | 2023 |
| Code Suggestions | ✓ | ✗ |
| Security Scanning | ✓ | ✗ |
| Chat | ✓ | ✓ |
| Code Transformation | ✓ | ✗ |
| Aws Integration | ✓ | ✗ |
| Reference Tracking | ✓ | ✗ |
| Autocomplete | ✗ | ✓ |
| Inline Editing | ✗ | ✓ |
| Multi Model Support | ✗ | ✓ |
| Context Providers | ✗ | ✓ |
| Custom Commands | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Amazon Q Developer Pros
- Free individual tier
- Security scanning
- AWS integration
- Multi-language
✗ Amazon Q Developer Cons
- Less accurate than Copilot
- AWS-biased suggestions
- Smaller community
✓ Continue Pros
- Fully open-source (Apache 2.0)
- Works with any LLM provider
- VS Code and JetBrains support
- Local model support
✗ Continue Cons
- Requires self-configuration of LLM
- Less polished than Copilot
- Setup can be complex for beginners
The Verdict
Amazon Q Developer is built for aws developers and enterprise, with a focus on code-suggestions and security-scanning. Continue targets developers and open source advocates and leads with autocomplete and chat.
Continue uses custom enterprise pricing, while Amazon Q Developer starts at $19/mo — a tangible advantage for teams with a fixed budget.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.