Editorial Review Updated May 2026

Continue Review 2026 — Is It Worth It?

An honest, hands-on assessment by the AIToolPick editorial team. No sponsored content, no affiliate bias in our scoring.

3.7 / 5
★★★★☆

Editor's Rating

Features
2
Ease of Use
4
Value for Money
4.5
Support
4.4

The Bottom Line

Continue occupies a respectable middle ground. It handles fully open-source (apache 2.0) competently enough for developers and open source advocates, but requires self-configuration of llm prevents it from breaking into the top tier. It can still be the right pick if your priorities align with its strengths, though we recommend comparing it against the leading alternatives before committing.

Try Continue →

Who is Continue for?

Not every tool is right for everyone. Here's who will get the most value from Continue:

💻 Developers
🎯 Open Source Advocates
🎯 Privacy Focused Devs
🎯 Self Hosters

If you identify with any of these profiles, Continue was designed with your workflow in mind. The free tier makes it easy to test whether it actually fits.

Key Strengths

Where Continue genuinely excels:

1
Fully open-source (Apache 2.0)

This is arguably Continue's biggest competitive advantage — and it's immediately noticeable from the first session.

2
Works with any LLM provider

A consistently praised aspect that adds real day-to-day value for the target audience.

3
VS Code and JetBrains support

This differentiator becomes more apparent the longer you use the platform.

4
Local model support

An additional benefit that rounds out the overall experience.

Where Continue Falls Short

No tool is perfect. Here's what gave us pause:

Requires self-configuration of LLM

This is the most commonly cited frustration — and the one most likely to affect your decision.

Less polished than Copilot

A secondary concern that may or may not impact you depending on your use case.

Setup can be complex for beginners

Worth knowing about, though not necessarily a dealbreaker for most users.

Pricing: Is Continue Worth the Cost?

Free free
Free Free

The free tier is generous enough to genuinely evaluate Continue before spending anything. That's a confidence signal — they trust the product to sell itself.

View Full Pricing →

See How Continue Compares

Wondering how Continue stacks up against GitHub? Our side-by-side comparison breaks down features, pricing, and performance.

Continue vs GitHub →

Ready to Decide?

Continue scores 3.7/5 — a reasonable option if its strengths align with your needs.

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