Which AI Coding Tool Should You Pick in 2026? Copilot vs Cursor vs Claude Code vs Kiro vs Antigravity

If you've been using AI to write code, you've probably noticed that in 2026 there are more tools out there than ever — GitHub Copilot, Cursor that came later, Anthropic's Claude Code, AWS's Kiro, and Google's Antigravity. Each one is positioned a little differently, but a lot of people get tripped up trying to figure out which one is which.

Personally I mostly use VSCode with GitHub Copilot and Claude Code, and I've poked around with Cursor, Kiro, and Antigravity. Friends keep asking me which one they should pick, so this is my attempt at walking through the differences across all five so you can make the call based on your own workflow.

A quick intro to all five tools

Before the comparison, a fast pass on what each one actually does.

GitHub Copilot