Aider

Aider is the world’s most hardcore open source AI pairing programming tool born in 2023, it has been iterated to v0.68+ in 2025, with 38k+ GitHub stars, and has been labeled by Hacker News as “the real AI senior engineer in the terminal”. It is 100% open source (MIT), pure terminal operation, local Git deep integration, developers affectionately called it “free Devin + Cursor terminal version + voice code machine” – a sentence of Chinese / voice requirements, you can let AI Change full library, run tests, write commit, push GitHub, SWE-Bench Verified 47.2% (o3-pro).

Core Functions (Why 1 sentence of requirement = 1 day of manual work?)

2025 Latest features (monthly bursts)

• Voice Mode 2.0: support Chinese voice + real-time interrupt.
• Aider Browser: built-in lightweight browser, AI own search StackOverflow, point documents.
• Polyglot 84.9%: o3-pro is on the list of 225 language benchmarks.
• /architect mode: first UML → then code → then test.

Feature highlights (real community feedback)

• Privacy nuke: code never leaves the computer, local model 0 cloud.
• Geek Friendly: Pure Terminal + Vim keys, 3 seconds to start.
• Free Carnival: open source free, only spend money on model API (Claude 3.7 only ¥ 2 an hour).
• Language fiend: Python, JS/TS, Rust, Go, Java, C++, PHP, HTML/CSS full coverage.
• Newbie 0 threshold: don’t know Git? Say “Help me with the whole Next.js SaaS with login”, 45s out of 28 files + auto commit.

Pricing (updated November 2025)

• Local: free forever (pip install aider-chat)
• Cloud API: only charge you for the models you use (official calculator: aider.chat/cost)
• Enterprise: $29/user/month (Aider Pro) → Unlimited Parallelism + Private Ollama Cluster + Audit Logging

Getting Started in 3 Steps

1. Terminal 3 seconds to load:
   bash

   pip install aider-chat # fastest in the world

2. Go to the project folder:
   bash

   cd my-saas
   aider --model sonnet --api-key anthropic=sk-...

3. Start chatting directly:
   text

   Building an AI mapping SaaS with Next.js 14 + Prisma + Stripe with RBAC and Diablo mode

   → 35s later look at diff → enter app → auto commit → say “run tests” → say “push to GitHub” → go live in seconds!

Community Word of Mouth (X/Reddit buzz)

• “1 line hint, Aider wrote 650 lines of cross-service functionality, 1 shot success!” — Discord autopoietist
• “Voice coding lets me fix bugs while walking the dog, 4x more productive!” –YouTube IndyDevDan
• “More Git than Cursor, lighter than OpenHands, and more voice than Windsurf.”

Official Site & Resources

• Documentation: aider.chat/docs
• GitHub: github.com/Aider-AI/aider (starred 38k+)
• Cost calculator: aider.chat/cost
• Discord: 80,000+ geeks watching AI write code in real time.
• Weekly “Voice & Vibe” live stream: YouTube @aiderchat

Summary:

Aider = Free Devin + Voice Code Machine + Git Auto Butler + Terminal Mindstream, allowing you to evolve from “knocking code” to “speaking requirements, walking the dog, and watching PR auto-push”.