Introduction:
Whether you are excited about it or not, AI is not just a passing trend — it's here to stay. AI now helps developers write code, design interfaces, analyze data, create documentation, and even review code. With almost every single tool labeled “AI-powered,” figuring out which ones that can truly help you feels daunting. In this article, I explore five dependable AI tools and suggest a few alternatives, so you can pick the best option for your workflow and improve your efficiency.
1. AI Code Editor: Cursor
Replaces: VS Code
Cursor is probably the most popular AI code editor that exists. It works with you through your entire journey writing code. It helps with autocompletion, code generation, and with it's new agent workflow it can build and navigate entire apps for you.
Alternative to consider:
- Windsurf – A new code editor that rivals established tools by offering powerful AI capabilities.
2. AI Design Tool: v0
Replaces: Figma
v0 uses AI to streamline your design process. It offers automated layout suggestions, quick prototypes, and an easy-to-use chat interface, and even generates the code for you so you spend less time setting up and more time improving your designs.
Another design tool:
- Magic Patterns – Use AI to create custom components and pages with minimal effort.
3. AI Data Platform: Outerbase
Replaces: DataGrip, Tableau
Outerbase combines database management with data visualization. Its user-friendly interface makes querying and analyzing data straightforward, helping teams see insights faster and make better decisions.
Check out this tool as well:
- ThoughtSpot – An BI solution that uses AI for in-depth analytics.
4. AI Documentation Platform: Mintlify
Replaces: Docusaurus
Mintlify lets you create clear, SEO-friendly documentation without a heavy setup. It offers version control, full-text search, and simple customization, making it easy to keep your docs organized.
Other documentation solution:
- Notion AI – Helps you write and organize documentation quickly.
5. AI Code Review Tool: CodeRabbit
Replaces: Traditional Pull Request Reviews
CodeRabbit adds AI insights to the code review process. It scans for possible errors, offers suggestions for improvements, and keeps your codebase tidy. It also helps reviews go faster while still maintaining quality.
Another tool to consider:
- Greptile – Uses AI to understand your codebase, review pull requests, detect bugs, and streamline tasks.
Conclusion
I truly believe these 5 AI-powered devtools are changing the way developers work. Whether you’re writing code, designing user interfaces, analyzing data, documenting projects, or reviewing code, there’s already an AI tool ready to speed things up.
Try them out, compare features, and pick the ones that fit your workflow best.
Top comments (21)
do you think mintlify is worth the 150/month when there are so many great open source alternatives?
Great question — I agree the price is a bit steep, but it depends on what you value!
Mintlify's out of the box docs look better than most of the open-source options out there by default. However, if you are able and willing to customize them, then I think an open-source solution is completely viable.
fair enough, I think im just too broke for that
Yeah I hear that, what do you use currently? The Sliplane docs look great 😊
thank you :D thats astro starlight. Was super easy to setup and customize. I think I built that entire page in <2 hours including the data migration!
can you name a few open source alternatives ?
I use Astro starlight for this: docs.sliplane.io, i think scalar and vrite are both also open source
you're spot on, @code42cate. I've worked at Mintlify and, above all, companies like it for their customer support. there are awesome open-source alternatives, like Fumadocs — proud sponsor — or Starlight by Astro — there's even a Mintlify inspired theme for that framework. IMHO it really depends on your needs.
Interesting! Wouldn’t have guessed that support is the main point
It's nice to see you've mentioned the replacements as well. Thanks, mate! Here are more cool AI developer tools (All Free):
This is a great list, I haven't heard of a few of these. Excited to check them out!
Try them out! They're all lifesavers :)
Are there any tools that I am missing and I should check out?
This is amazing
Fantastic article!
Fantastic article!
want to keep this article in my pocket. good Article
nice article.....
awesome list, @burcs! at Bucket, we recently experimented with Cursor — and enjoy using it. We also started working on an AI feature to automatically clean up stale feature flags.
hopefully we'll make to the list in 2026!
One small step in AI, one giant leap for feature flags.
flo merian ・ Apr 1
cursor is not free. i uninstalled after 5 mins 😞. If you can tell any solution then reply please
in this post, @burcs suggests Windsurf as an alternative. you could consider Zed, too.
hope this helps!