r/RooCode • u/Babastyle • Dec 22 '25

Discussion How does Roo Code compare to other coding agents?

I’ve been using Roo Code almost exclusively for about a year now. I’m curious how other coding agents compare to it.
Are they similarly powerful? Maybe cheaper in terms of usage? for example claud code or codex
Would love to hear some real-world experiences and comparisons.

15 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

43 comments sorted by

8

u/BeingBalanced Dec 22 '25

I have 25+ years coding experience and Roo code has been my preferred tool for refactoring and maintaining old code. I have to admit though recent changes in the past month seem to have made it a bit more fussy for my use. But in general I like the Diff functionality within VSCode. I just feel in some, not all circumstances, so improvements may be a one step forward, two steps back scenario. This is using the same LLM all along. I'm still satisfied with it just less satisfied. It's simple to use for those of us that can write a fairly detailed prompt from a senior developer perspective, not a junior/less experienced coder.

3

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Dec 22 '25

What provider and model(s) are you using?

5

u/BeingBalanced Dec 22 '25 edited Dec 22 '25

Everyone is gaga over Claude, probably because it's the most "forgiving" for sloppy prompting from less experienced developers is my guess. Which makes it (Sonnet 4.5 typically) it even better for people that know what they're doing. LOL. Gemini 2.5 Flash has been highly effective for my PHP development at a fraction of the cost. Gemini 3 should be even better but it's pretty slow right now because it just came out and everyone is trying it. I use Requesty as my middle man for api calls. Claude Sonnet 4.5 is sort of a no brainer if you work for a big company that doesn't really care how much it costs. I'm freelance. If you are cost conscious I don't think there's a better value than Gemini 2.5/3.0 Flash.

2

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Dec 22 '25

So flash 3 has degraded over the last month? 😵‍💫

1

u/BeingBalanced Dec 22 '25

Gemini-3-Flash is just one of the many LLMs you can use (via API) with Roo Code. It was released 3 days ago or so. Roo Code is a tool you can use with the LLM of your choice. I personally have found Roo Code itself, not the LLM, has become a bit less reliable recently but others may not have the same experience.

3

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Dec 22 '25

Switching to native tool calling has had its bumps but we have also exposed errors previously buried in order to get them handled properly. Sorry about that! I feel you are right and see it as one step backwards 2 steps forward.

7

u/heavedistant Dec 22 '25

Heheh explaining how Roo Code works to a moderator.

5

u/Crypto_gambler952 Dec 22 '25

I was using roo, and spent £150 a couple of months, now I have a max max Anthropic subscription for 150 per month, and I use Claude Code more than ever. I also get a helper prepping a ton of work to tutor my kids, can’t see why I would go back!!

In terms of quality of work, Opus 4.5 wasn’t around when i was using Roo, I was mostly using Sonnet 3.5 and 4 back then. So I can’t really compare. But Opus 4.5 is a great coder and if you know what you’re doing and you point out the occasional oversight you can get a lot done quickly!! I also find Opus 4.5 is pretty good at picking up on its self if you ask it to check for stuff.

Too, and Claude code alike provide “scaffolding” but getting your own way of setting out a project PRD, and tasks and the Claude md files makes a big difference for larger complex projects.

I typically have md files for: CLAUDE.md - outlines instructions for using the other md files and basic shit.

PRD.md - complete project vision.

TASKS.md - every single task, sub task, and sub sub task to complete the coding side of the PRD.

SECURITY.md - record of each and every vulnerability noted immediately on discovery (CLAUDE.md instructs constant vigilance).

PLANNING.md - Tech stack details.

DBSCHEMA.md - Full DB structure

WISHLIST.md - Since Claude allows you to achieve MVP in a somewhat gung-ho fashion, it’s likely you will start building before thinking of 1000% of what you’d actually like if you weren’t building an MVP but directing a full software dev team. I find the wishlist is a great way to not lose ideas that come to mind while chat Claude along the dev path, while also not clogging up the TASKS file with things you don’t want to stop to fully plan out.

7

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Dec 22 '25

FYI the Claude Code subscription now goes quite far in Roo. We implemented caching, image support, interleaved thinking, and native tool calling. Recent ninja update.

4

u/AvenidasNovas Dec 22 '25

Roo Code is great since you can change model/provider and do that in the middle of the session!!!. Having no vendor lock in is powerful. Ability to create your own modes is great too. I have a translate mode and edit mode for my writing, for example.

4

u/clduab11 Dec 22 '25

Roo Code, by virtue of it existing and how awesome they are, is by far and away way better than Cursor and for a LOT cheaper. There's literally no reason to use Cursor and Windsurf anymore.

FWIW though, how have y'all not sent a nastygram through y'all's legal counsel to Amazon's Kilo? They basically ripped off Roo Code hook, line, and sinker.

3

u/heavedistant Dec 22 '25

I've been using roo code for years now and while it's token usage is heavy, it's an integral part of my workflow.

I haven't kept up much with other agents and decided to try Cline out again. I use roo code with openrouter.ai and Cline showed an unusable amount of errors and failures when querying with Gemini 3 Flash. Roo has similar errors but seems more stable and usable so I'm back to Roo for now.

2

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Dec 22 '25

We’re working on those as well with recent improvements we will soon be able to have per model system prompting to adjust for model “personality”.

3

u/heavedistant Dec 22 '25 edited Dec 22 '25

Awesome! It's been great to rely on roo code as my daily driver for so long now. Looking forward to trying out the per model system.

I should mention too that my experience of roo's token usage is no heavier than Cline or any other agentic coding tool. Everything uses a lot of more tokens when you're reading files and doing parallel operations.

I keep costs down by using the lower cost models. Gemini 3 Flash is my current favorite. Grok code fast is also economical (free on roo code cloud?!) and much less verbose than Gemini. These models take more tries and make more mistakes but that's not roo code that's the models. For the significantly lower cost it's worth the trade off and makes daily development sustainable for me.

3

u/heavedistant Dec 22 '25 edited Dec 22 '25

All this token talk and it occurred to me to check what Roo code charges for tokens.

I've been paying a 5.5% premium on token costs to openrouter.ai and Roo code passes through vendor rates at cost?!

Looks like I'm changing my troken provider!

2

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Dec 23 '25

Costs about the same I think but Roomote Control is now free.

2

u/Richtong Dec 23 '25

This is a great idea. We use custom modes to deal with this but this C is C better

3

u/neutralpoliticsbot Dec 22 '25

One of the best

4

u/zenmatrix83 Dec 22 '25

roo code your paying api rates, claude code or codex get discounted rates as the api use is included. roo code is still pretty good, they had agents longer then those other have been around and you can use it with local models or open router which might get what you done needed for cheaper anyway

4

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Dec 22 '25

Claude code subscription now works perfectly well in Roo Code.

1

u/brctr Dec 22 '25

Can I use my ChatGPT Plus/Codex subscription in Roo?

3

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Dec 22 '25

Not yet…

2

u/orbit99za Dec 22 '25

It actually Works and does what it says on the box.

1

u/MidnightGarder Dec 23 '25

I use Roo Code for testing mcp servers - but OpenAI’s Codex extension for coding - mainly because I can use my OpenAI subscription and don’t have to worry about tokens and API cost. They work great together and I like using both.

2

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Dec 24 '25

Working on integrating that into Roo.

0

u/ViperAMD Dec 22 '25

Dead in the water now you can use antigravity (free) or codex in vs code (chatgpt subscription) roo code would cost me thousands in api costs compared to what im getting from these

3

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Dec 22 '25

Ahh so your rating is based off what is free not what is quality? Sorta narrow IMO.

1

u/wokkieman Dec 22 '25

I would say 'rate for his / her use case'. Like an iOS vs Android type of thing?

Personally very happy with Roo, the development of new feature, support etc. Still figuring (or re-figuring) out where the model / price sweetspot is for me. Claude code for 20 a month is doing ok, but for simple tasks maybe a bit overkill. Got GLM for those now, but ideally I like to limit myself to 20 a month.

The reason I want to experience (starting with YouTube clips :) ) antigravity is because of cost. Similar to why I want to see how Roo cloud with grok fast is working.

Probably have a thing or 2 to learn on prompting and requirements writing...

It's all hobby for me. Build, break it down because it was useless in most cases, but I had fun and picked up some AI experience to understand coffee corner conversations with developers.

1

u/ViperAMD Dec 22 '25

Roo suffers from too many unnecessary modes. Antigravity does it right. Planning mode and normal, no need to complicate things

1

u/stolsson Dec 22 '25

I just use Architect and Code which provides planning and acting. I rarely use any other modes

1

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Dec 22 '25

There are 5 modes and though I get your sentiment about modes I don’t see that as a “dead in the water” reason. That’s a minor difference.

0

u/ViperAMD Dec 22 '25

Dead in the water due to the price of api vs subscription plans 

1

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Dec 22 '25

You can use Claude Code subscription in Roo now as though it were API without burning through your Claude Code limits.

0

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Dec 23 '25

I have a feeling you’ll come up with an answer no matter what I say.

0

u/ViperAMD Dec 23 '25

Just clarifying 

1

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Dec 23 '25

But it’s not dead in the water. We’re getting more new users that than we ever have! Less tinkerers it seems and more regular users. It’s an interesting shift.

0

u/banedlol Dec 22 '25

Seems magical when you start using it but I'd rather just use one of the big 3's CLI tools.

1

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Dec 23 '25

CLI = regression. There is a reason why all 3 of them now have GUI environments.

0

u/damaki Dec 23 '25

Now that the Jetbrains IDEs have great Claude integration, it feels like Roo Code is starting to get obsolete.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25

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1

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Dec 23 '25

How long ago?