CodebuffvsPlandex
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
Codebuff
Codebuff · Terminal agent
#160OSSMCP
Panel
4.62 spec wins
- Reliability
- 5.0
- Usefulness
- 5.8
- Cost
- 2.8
- Longevity
- 4.7
“Starts at $100 a month or free with ads, the first coding agent to make you choose between a meter and a commercial.”
Plandex
Plandex · Terminal agent
#168OSS
Panel
4.87 spec wins
- Reliability
- 4.8
- Usefulness
- 5.2
- Cost
- 5.7
- Longevity
- 3.3
“The install script lives on a domain that no longer resolves, which is one way to enforce self-hosting.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Codebuff | Plandex |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Terminal agent | Terminal agent |
| Runs | local | local |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows | macos, linux |
| Context window | not documented | 2M token effective context window |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | Yes | No |
| MCP server | No | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | Yes | Yes |
| Git operations | No | Yes |
| Browser control | No | No |
| Sandboxed execution | No | No |
| Multi-agent orchestration | Yes | No |
| Headless / CI mode | Yes | Yes |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | Claude, GPT, Gemini | Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, any OpenRouter or OpenAI-compatible model |
| Bring your own model | No | Yes |
| Local models | No | Yes |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | mixed | byok |
| Starts at | $100/mo | $0/mo |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Bring your own key | No | Yes |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 13,074 | 15,689 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Codebuff | Plandex | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 5.3 | 5.3 | no preference |
| El Crítico | 4.8 | 4.5 | Codebuff — Several subagents with shell access, no sandbox, no BYOK and a $100 floor is a lot of trust to sell at a price the multipliers on the pricing page do not explain. |
| El Profesor | 5.3 | 5.5 | Plandex — The cumulative diff sandbox is the most principled edit-staging design among terminal agents, and the 2M-token context claim has no measurement behind it. |
| La Inversora | 4.0 | 3.0 | Codebuff — A $100 floor with no BYOK says they need margin, an ad-supported free CLI says they need reach, and renaming the repo after the free version says which one is winning. |
| La Jefa | 3.8 | 3.5 | Codebuff — Sixty seats at the $100 floor is $6,000 a month with no BYOK and no way to route through our model contract, and the free alternative shows ads, so this is not a team tool yet. |
| El Hacker | 4.5 | 6.8 | Plandex — MIT, runs entirely on my box with start_local.sh, talks to Ollama or OpenRouter, and I would be the maintainer, which is the honest price of the diff sandbox. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.