The free alternative to Devin
An autonomous coding agent that ships PRs — without the $500/mo invoice.
FT
The Freebuff TeamBuilding the free coding agent
TL;DR
- Freebuff is a free alternative to Cognition’s Devin — autonomous agent that ships PRs.
- Devin starts around $500/mo for serious use. Freebuff is $0.
- Edits run locally, but relevant prompts, code, files, and repository context are sent to Freebuff and model providers.
- Browser-use subagent verifies the app the way Devin verifies in its sandbox.
Devin set the bar for "the agent does the whole task end-to-end" — including verifying the result in a real browser. Freebuff implements the same loop locally, with no subscription.
Feature-by-feature: Freebuff vs Devin#
| Feature | Freebuff | Devin (Cognition) |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $500+/mo (serious tier) |
| Execution location | Local + your shell | Devin’s cloud sandbox |
| Opens PRs | Yes via /pr | Yes |
| Verifies in browser | Built-in browser-use subagent | Yes |
| Models | Deepseek v4, MiMo 2.5 Pro, GLM 5.2, Minimax M3, GPT-5.4 (connected ChatGPT) | Internal model selection |
| Inspect & take over | You watch in your terminal | Devin Console |
| Per-task cost | Free | Burns Devin "ACUs" |
When Devin still wins#
- Fully managed cloud agents. Devin runs in its own sandbox so you do not even need a terminal open.
- Long, multi-day tasks with managed retries. Devin’s scheduling is more mature.
When Freebuff wins#
- Runs locally. Freebuff edits files locally but sends relevant prompts, code, files, and repository context to its servers and model providers. See the Privacy Policy for details.
- You see every command in real time — easier to step in and steer.
- No "ACU" or credit accounting.
- Per-task model choice.
Can Freebuff really replace Devin?+
For local-first workflows, yes. Freebuff plans, edits, runs, verifies in a browser, and opens PRs. Devin’s edge is fully cloud-managed scheduling for very long-running jobs.
Does Freebuff have a "Console" like Devin?+
Freebuff runs in your terminal, so the console is your terminal. The web dashboard shows recent runs, costs, and PRs.
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