The rapid advancement of AI has transformed the way developers approach software creation, problem-solving, and collaboration. AI tools are no longer just experimental—they’ve become essential components of modern development environments.
This article will be especially useful for developers who want to automate repetitive tasks, enhance code accuracy, and improve project management. We offer an overview of some of the best AI tools currently available, including pricing and key features, so you can choose the right tools to fit your needs and projects.
Best AI tools for software development
Here are some tools to streamline your coding and improve performance:
1. GitHub Copilot
GitHub Copilot is an AI-powered code assistant that integrates into your IDE. It provides real-time code suggestions based on the context and speeds up the coding process.
The tool has been trained on GitHub’s data and can offer suggestions in, basically, any programming language. It’s especially helpful for automating repetitive tasks and generating boilerplate code, saving valuable development time. According to research, around 75% of users reported that they feel less frustrated, more fulfilled, and can reduce the mental effort that comes with coding routine tasks (87%). Moreover, Copilot helped them to stay in the flow (73%).
Pricing: starts at $10 per month for individuals, and there’s also a 30-day free trial.
2. Tabnine
Tabnine is an AI-powered code completion tool that supports multiple programming languages such as C, C++, C#, CSS, Dart, Go, Haskell, Java, JS, Kotlin, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, Scala, TS.
It’s designed to predict and auto-complete lines or blocks of code based on context. What sets Tabnine apart is its focus on privacy and security; it runs entirely within your development environment without sending code snippets to external servers. Tabnine also learns from your specific coding patterns, improving its predictions over time.
Pricing: free version for individuals and paid plans starting from $12 per user per month. Paid plans have more advanced code completion features.
3. Replit Ghostwriter
Replit’s Ghostwriter is an AI tool that simplifies collaborative coding. Integrated directly into the Replit platform, Ghostwriter assists with in-line suggestions, bug detection, and code explanations. The tool works especially well with Python and JS.
The platform offers 4 AI tools in one place:
- Generate. Embedded in the editor, offers general coding suggestions.
- Transform. Refactor your code to make it run faster or translate in another language.
- Explain. You can ask AI to explain its solution ― helpful for those who are learning to code.
- Chat. A literal chat window where you can ask questions, request specific code blocks, and more.
It also offers AI debugging, which you can use when you aren’t sure what is wrong with your code. The tool can also write tests and generate documentation for your projects.
Replit allows multiple team members to work together seamlessly, and AI can be helpful offering real-time support for error detection and learning assistance. It also includes a pre-scan feature to identify code abnormalities before they become problems.
Pricing: starts with a free plan, but Ghostwriter is included in higher-tier plans, starting at $7 per month. This tool is especially useful for beginners or teams looking for AI-powered collaboration. Might not be suitable for larger projects.
4. Snyk
Snyk is a security-focused AI tool that helps developers identify and fix vulnerabilities in their code and dependencies. By using machine learning, Snyk provides real-time alerts about bugs and security issues within your codebase. It integrates with popular IDEs and CI/CD pipelines, offering automated fixes and explanations for each identified vulnerability. This tool helps maintain the quality and security of your software from the very beginning of development.
Pricing: Snyk offers a free plan for small teams, with paid plans starting at $25 per user per month, making it an affordable yet powerful tool for ensuring code security in larger projects.
5. Mintlify
Mintlify is an AI-powered tool that auto-generates documentation from your codebase. It scans your existing code and creates clean, developer-friendly documentation. This is especially useful for API documentation, where Mintlify can generate comprehensive guides. Mintlify’s LLM-based system also provides content recommendations and tracks documentation usage to improve readability. It has recently added features like AI-powered chat for interactive documentation search, making it easier for developers to find relevant documentation quickly.
The tool has been supported by Y Combinator and appeared on the pages of TechCrunch:
As we saw it, the role of content was changing with AI. Documentation will evolve automatically in real time from support messages, the codebase and product feedback,” Wang said. “AI assistance will help companies write technical content automatically based on product changes and user feedback.
― Han Wong, co-founder of Mintlify, TechCrunch
Pricing: Mintlify offers a free plan with limited features, while the paid plan starts at $120 per project per month, ideal for teams handling complex documentation needs.
6. Amazon CodeGuru
Amazon CodeGuru is an AI-driven code review and performance optimization tool by AWS. It helps developers identify critical code issues, such as performance bottlenecks and security vulnerabilities, by using machine learning algorithms. It continuously reviews code and provides recommendations to improve coding efficiency and fix bugs. CodeGuru consists of two main components: CodeGuru Reviewer for automated code reviews and CodeGuru Profiler for identifying performance optimizations.
Pricing: a pay-as-you-go model, with a 90-day free trial. First 100K lines of code in onboarded repositories cost $10.00, additional 100K lines of code in onboarded repositories ―$30.00 (per each 100k lines of code).
Suitable for large teams and those who already run projects on AWS infrastructure.
7. Phind
Phind is a search engine built specifically for developers. You can ask questions, ask to generate code or comment on your own solution. A strong advantage of this tool is that it doesn’t just provide answers but also sources where it found the information for you to check.
The tool has also been supported by Y Combinator. The developer feedback on this tool is mostly positive when compared to similar tools like Bing or ChatGPT:
Pricing: free to use.
8. Uizard
Uizard is an AI-powered tool for turning design sketches or screenshots into working UI code. It’s particularly useful for developers working with frontend technologies who need to transform mockups into functional applications quickly. Uizard can generate code for a variety of frameworks and supports drag-and-drop features, making it easy to design and code at the same time. It’s ideal for those who want to convert ideas into prototypes rapidly, without extensive design experience.
Pricing: free tier for individuals, with paid plans starting at $19 per month. They include more advanced features such as higher context windows.
9. FlexClip
FlexClip is a tool for generating video presentations, lectures, and project showcases. It supports text-to-video conversion, AI script generation, and subtitle creation with automated voice over. This tool is particularly useful for developers who need to communicate technical ideas to a non-technical audience or share updates visually with their team.
Pricing: free plan with limited video quality, while its paid plans start at $9.99 per month, offering more advanced features and higher video resolutions.
10. Otter
Otter.ai is a meeting assistant powered by AI that captures meeting notes and transcribes voice to text. If you attend meetings frequently and need accurate documentation for later review, you can use it to create conversation notes, summaries and searchable transcripts. This tool allows you to focus on coding and be sure you don’t miss important meeting points.
Pricing: free plan with basic transcription features and paid plans starting at $16.99 per month, which include advanced features like custom vocabulary and team collaboration options.
11. Lightning AI
Lightning AI is a platform that enables you to build, scale, and deploy AI models with ease. It provides an environment where you can focus on creating sophisticated machine learning applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. Lightning AI helps streamline the process of training and deploying models, offering scalability and flexibility through its cloud-based infrastructure. With its user-friendly interface, the platform is great for quick experimentation, collaborative workflows, and seamless integration with popular tools in the AI ecosystem.
Pricing: Lightning AI offers a free tier for users just starting out. Paid plans are available with advanced features like enterprise-level scaling and collaboration tools on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Hope these AI tools will help you in various aspects, from enhancing coding productivity to automating documentation, video creation, and meeting transcription.
If you want to learn more about AI tools, keep reading:
