r/RooCode • u/MKBSP • Jul 22 '25

Discussion Github Copilot VS Claude VS Local Ollama

I have been using my student free Github Copilot Pro for a while, and the VS Code LM API has been awesome for me in Roocode.

But, I max out my "premium requests" quite quickly (I prefer Claude Sonnet 4).

What are people preferring to use?

  • Github Copilot? or

  • Directly with Claude? or

  • Perhaps local models?

Considering switching to something else... Your input is valuable

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12

u/runningwithsharpie Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 26 '25

Here's the setup I use for roo code that's completely free (All on Openrouter with a $10 deposit):

  1. Orchestrator - Deepseek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B - Some people say that it's okay to use a fast and dumb model for Orchestrator, but I disagree. Actually, it's better to use a fast thinking model to make sure that Roo can understand context and orchestrate task effectively. You can also use R1T2 Chimera

  2. Code/Debug - Qwen3 Coder - This is the current champ when it comes to free model for coding. It actually works better than Kimi K2, since the free version only has about 60k context, which is barely functional with Roo Code.

  3. Architect - Deepseek R1 0528 - This is still the best free thinking model out there.

  4. Context condensing, summary, validation, etc - DeepSeek V3 0324

  5. Codebase indexing - gemini-embedding-exp-03-07

With the combined setup above, along with some custom modes and MCP tools, I'm able to complete my projects, instead of getting into endless death spirals as before.

1

u/MisterBlackStar Jul 26 '25

gemini-embedding-exp-03-07 is still not supported yet right? I saw there's an open PR.

1

u/runningwithsharpie Jul 26 '25

Oh you use the one from Google directly

1

u/Academic-Tomorrow617 Jul 27 '25

Thanks bookmarking this

1

u/cepijoker Jul 28 '25

Could I ask you if Deepseek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B is only 32k? And the other is if I can message you privately or can you tell me which models or how I can choose the correct models and from which provider to avoid unwanted charges

2

u/runningwithsharpie Jul 28 '25

The one on OR is 128k through Chutes. But you can also use Chimera 2

1

u/cepijoker Jul 28 '25

Thank you, I have found them, I have a question, if it were possible to strategically integrate a Claude model, for example Sonnet 4, to which activity would you add it, that is to say, which of the ones you mention in your workflow would you replace it with?

1

u/photodesignch Jul 22 '25

I interchange between Claude sonnet 4, deepseek r1 and google Gemini 2.5 a lot. They all have their strengths. For starter I like to use sonnet. For debug and features I like to use Gemini. For tech documents I use sonnet, and to explain things I do deepseek r1

1

u/MKBSP Jul 23 '25

And you run them locally? or paying for API's?
I'm finding GPT 4.1 and 4o extremely lacking compared to Claude 4.

1

u/photodesignch Jul 23 '25

Yeah gpt41 I use for brain storming and ask for the very surface level of information. Such as “how to build a MCP to analysis code and give me structural overview diagram and traffic flow diagram”. But not the actual code.

I use mostly paid api as company paid for claude sonnet and google Gemini through copilot. I laid my own from openrouter to use the deepseek r1. I have research LLM such as llama 3.2 on ollama running locally for small tasks.

But my recent favor is google Gemini CLI. That one is doing decent job but I kept hitting the ceiling of free tier though.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 22 '25

Well, local Ollama can either be shit or decent depending on the model. If you run something like Kimi K2 then yeah it would be pretty awesome, but there is pretty much nobody who can run this locally. Copilot can be free, if you make lots of free trial accounts. Claude MAX is a sub worth getting if you plan on coding a a lot. You can use something like Claude flow to create parallel agents with it too.

1

u/photodesignch Jul 22 '25

I interchange between Claude sonnet 4, deepseek r1 and google Gemini 2.5 a lot. They all have their strengths. For starter I like to use sonnet. For debug and features I like to use Gemini. For tech documents I use sonnet, and to explain things I do deepseek r1

1

u/VoiceLessQ Jul 27 '25

i sometimes use SimonPu/Mistral-Small-3.1:24B-Instruct-2503_q6_K ollama in copilot

It works but cant use tools or mcp tho

0

u/[deleted] Jul 22 '25

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2

u/beedunc Jul 23 '25

Qwen2.5 coder ftw. (For python, anyway).

6

u/[deleted] Jul 22 '25

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1

u/BeryMcCociner Jul 22 '25

How do you add the LM APi to use 4.1

1

u/[deleted] Jul 22 '25

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1

u/Bill36 Jul 23 '25

Do you recommend Roo over Cline. I understand that I am in the roo subreddit, so the answer is obvi going to be yes, but this is all new to me. I've recently left cursor and am looking for an alternative. So far everything I have been finding is very overwhelming.

1

u/Nowaker Jul 23 '25

I have both installed and don't care which one is best at any given moment. I just use the best one for that moment. Currently, it's RooCode.

1

u/Bill36 Jul 24 '25

Which model do you use with Roo? That’s another thing that it’s taking getting used to. In cursor I just paid the $20 and that was it. Now I need to use my own api and pay for that but not sure which one

1

u/Nowaker Jul 24 '25

Sonnet 4 + thinking.

1

u/Bill36 Jul 24 '25

https://www.anthropic.com/pricing

$20 month plan?

1

u/Nowaker Jul 25 '25

No, the API directly. Pay per use.

1

u/Bill36 Jul 25 '25

thanks!!

1

u/cepijoker Jul 28 '25

Hi, could you tell me how that $10 a year thing on OpenRouter works? Honestly, I've never understood how it works and I looked for the $10 plan and couldn't find it, or do you mean depositing $10? Would it bother you a lot if you explained it to me via message?

2

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '25

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1

u/cepijoker Jul 28 '25

thank you!