TwinnyvsZhanlu
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
Twinny
twinny · IDE extension
#266OSS
Panel
4.05 spec wins
- Reliability
- 3.7
- Usefulness
- 3.3
- Cost
- 7.3
- Longevity
- 1.5
“It connects to eight different model providers and is itself no longer connected to anyone.”
Zhanlu
China Mobile Cloud · IDE extension
#265MCP
Panel
3.53 spec wins
- Reliability
- 3.3
- Usefulness
- 4.3
- Cost
- 2.8
- Longevity
- 3.5
“One of its modes generates practice problems, so it can now set the homework and then do it for you.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Twinny | Zhanlu |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | IDE extension | IDE extension |
| Runs | local | local |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows | macos, linux, windows |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | No | Yes |
| MCP server | No | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | No | YesDocumented only for AI Programmer mode, which the vendor says saves and executes the code it writes and then debugs it. |
| Multi-file edits | No | YesAI Programmer mode supports file editing and project-level code generation across files; the other modes work on the selected snippet. |
| Git operations | No | No |
| Browser control | No | No |
| Sandboxed execution | No | No |
| Multi-agent orchestration | No | No |
| Headless / CI mode | No | No |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | any | Zhanlu code model |
| Bring your own model | Yes | No |
| Local models | Yes | No |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | free | mixed |
| Starts at | n/a | n/a |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Bring your own key | Yes | No |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | Yes | No |
| License | MIT | proprietary |
| GitHub stars | 3,663 | n/a |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Twinny | Zhanlu | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 3.8 | 4.0 | Zhanlu — Pick it only if you already work inside this cloud; for everyone else the account requirement decides the question before any feature does. |
| El Crítico | 3.5 | 3.5 | no preference |
| El Profesor | 4.8 | 3.3 | Twinny — Fill-in-the-middle completion paired with workspace embeddings built locally for chat context, a design predating tool use, which is why it suggests and never acts. |
| La Inversora | 3.0 | 4.8 | Zhanlu — Thirty-six thousand editor installations since June 2024, given away by a telecommunications cloud that charges for the account you need to use it. |
| La Jefa | 3.0 | 2.8 | Twinny — I cannot roll out something the publisher has declared finished, and there is no support channel, no maintenance and no security contact behind it. |
| El Hacker | 5.8 | 2.8 | Twinny — MIT and small, with any OpenAI-compatible endpoint including my own, which makes it the best kind of archived code: something I can fork rather than mourn. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.