Cline is the open-source VS Code extension that turned "bring your own API key" into a legitimate alternative to Cursor and Copilot. Over 5 million installs, an active community, and a genuinely agentic workflow — plan/act modes, terminal execution, browser automation, MCP support. We ran it as a daily driver for 5 months. Here's what actually held up.
The one-line verdict
4.0/5. Cline is the most capable free AI coding extension for VS Code, and the Plan/Act workflow is the best piece of process discipline we've seen in an agentic coding tool. The catch is in the name: Cline itself costs $0, but our actual API bill averaged $60-90/month — more than a Cursor Pro or Copilot subscription. "Free" extension, not-free-at-all usage.
Plan/Act: the feature that actually changes how you work
Plan Mode makes Cline draft a full plan — files touched, approach, dependencies it noticed — before it writes a single line. Act Mode then executes it step by step with per-step approval.
