Aider: what 34 developers actually say.
34 Hacker News opinions from 39 developers, Nov 2025 – Nov 2026. 35 come from people who say they use it. Here is what they praise, what they complain about, and who switched.
The case for Aider, in one paragraph.
Aider earns 60% approval across 34 opinions. Developers are divided on it.
Pick it if you
- Want each edit committed to git for review
- Work in small, well-scoped tasks and watch API spend
- Want local data and .gitignore handling respected
Look elsewhere if you
- Need polished interactive UX
- Plan to run small local models
- Want the option developers most often name as better, Claude Code
Where it wins and loses.
Mentions across 34 opinions. Bars are counts, not votes; a tool can be both praised and criticized on the same topic.
View data table
| Topic | Praise | Complaints | Mentions |
|---|
How opinion has moved.
Monthly approval, Nov 2025 – Aug 2026. Bars show opinion volume; low-volume months are still included but faded.
View data table
| Month | Approval | Opinions |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 2025 | 25% | 4 |
| Jan 2026 | 58% | 6 |
| Feb 2026 | 86% | 7 |
| Mar 2026 | 33% | 3 |
| Apr 2026 | 67% | 6 |
| Aug 2026 | 88% | 4 |
What developers say.
Summaries are paraphrased. Each links to the original Hacker News comment.
Praise
4 selectedBuilt a working Chrome extension with Aider for about $28 in API credits, and says it has worked well.
Logs every Aider session to a repo submodule and learns a lot by reading the prompts and logs later.
Aider respects .gitignore and keeps data local unless a remote endpoint is explicitly configured.
Uses Aider with new open models and Open Spec, saying it has helped a lot.
Complaints
4 selectedAider with local Qwen made too many errors and is far behind Claude Code.
Used Aider before but found Claude Code much better.
Aider didn't work for their CLI-centric, approve-every-edit workflow.
Found Aider unpleasant to use, with too much busywork.
Questions developers ask.
Is Aider worth it?
Is Aider better than Claude Code?
Is Aider expensive?
The data behind this page.
Aider holds 60% approval across 34 opinions from 39 authors, 35 of them firsthand. Developers praise code quality (5 positive, 1 negative) and large-codebase work (3 to 1), plus a git-based review loop and low cost; one built a Chrome extension for about $28 in API credits. UX is the weak spot (1 positive, 3 negative), and Claude Code is the most named alternative at 6 mentions. Monthly approval swings: 86% in February 2026 on 7 opinions, 33% in March on 3, 88% in August on 4, 50% in September on 1, and no 90-day figure is available.
Every number comes from public Hacker News comments collected through the HN Search API. A language model tagged each comment for sentiment, first-hand use, topic and switches; a human spot-checks samples. No vendor can pay for placement.
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Which AI coding tools gained or lost developer approval on Hacker News, and why people switched. One email a month.