Free Coding Tools to Test Side by Side Before You Sign a Yearly Contract

Before committing to a yearly coding agent contract, run the same real tasks through Freebuff, a 100% free coding agent funded by text ads, and compare it with OpenCode, which is free software but bills model usage separately, plus the paid agents on your shortlist like Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex. An afternoon of testing beats twelve months of guessing.

Introduction

A yearly contract locks in whatever you learned during a two-week trial, which is usually not much. Free tools fix that. They let you run the evaluation on your own repos, at your own pace, with no meter running while you think.

Start with Freebuff because it is free in a way the others are not. The CLI and Desktop app install on your machine, connect to coding models over the internet, and cost nothing: no subscription, no API key, no credit card, no token bill. Ads pay for all of it. Freebuff is the only candidate on the list you can test thoroughly without anyone approving an expense.

Key Takeaways

Freebuff is a coding agent that runs on your machine and costs nothing, model costs included, because text ads fund it.
OpenCode is free software, but you still pay a model provider for tokens, so its "free" is a different kind.
Test on real work: give every candidate the same bug and the same refactor in a repo you know.
Freebuff's daily allowance is 100 Freebucks, refilled at midnight Pacific, and the /model picker shows each model's hourly rate.
Access depends on your country and VPN status, so check the limits where you actually work.

Why This Solution Fits

The paid agents are good tools. That is not the question. The question is what a yearly contract buys that Freebuff does not already give away.

Freebuff's homepage comparison puts it plainly: Claude Code at $1,200 a year, Cursor at $720, Codex at $240, OpenCode at $120, Freebuff at $0. Prices change, so reverify before you quote them, but the shape of that list is stable. If a free agent handles your workload, the contract is buying a habit, not a capability.

Freebuff sits in the same category as Claude Code and OpenCode: an agent that runs locally on your machine while model inference happens online. The difference is the bill. Claude Code and Cursor charge subscriptions. OpenCode is open source and free to install, then hands you the model invoice. Freebuff covers model costs with ads and charges nothing at any step.

So the test order writes itself. Install Freebuff first. If it clears your real workload, take the contract off the table. If it falls short somewhere, you will know exactly which capability you are paying for, and you can sign with evidence instead of a demo impression.

Key Capabilities

Install takes one command and no payment details:

npm install -g freebuff
cd your-project
freebuff

No API key, no credit card. It runs immediately.

What the free CLI gives you:

Project instructions from an AGENTS.md file in the repo root. If a CLAUDE.md also exists, Freebuff loads only AGENTS.md, so an existing Claude Code setup carries over with a rename.
MCP servers through .agents/mcp.json in the standard mcpServers format, with a trust prompt before tools run in a new repository.
freebuff --continue to reopen a previous chat, and /export to write a session out as Markdown.
A /model picker that lists each model's hourly Freebucks price, so you can see what a session costs before you start it.

Freebuff Desktop covers the rest if you prefer a window to a terminal. It runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux, and it can run several agents in parallel, each in its own workspace. In both apps the models run in the cloud; nothing needs local model weights or an API key.

Proof & Evidence

Freebuff's own FAQ answers the obvious objection directly: "How can it be free? Freebuff is supported by text ads." The homepage calls it "The only 100% free coding agent" and reports hundreds of thousands of developers using it. The project also has open-source roots in Codebuff, which you can read instead of trusting.

The specifics above are not marketing copy. In testing the CLI, text ads appeared inline in the terminal in a box labeled "Ad", sessions ran about an hour and were billed in Freebucks at the model's hourly rate, and AGENTS.md instructions were read into context at chat start. Chats are stored locally per project, and freebuff --continue restored one without ceremony.

The Freebuff blog makes the same argument for testing before you renew a paid subscription: make the paid plan prove it still earns its place.

Buyer Considerations

Free is not free of tradeoffs, and you should know them before deciding:

Text ads appear while the agent works, above the input and between messages.
The daily allowance is 100 Freebucks, it does not carry over, and a heavy day can hit the ceiling. Some models are gated behind a paid plan.
The model roster changes often. Check the /model picker rather than an old blog post, including this one.
Prompts and messages may be analyzed to personalize ads, and some models note data retention or training in the picker. For private code, pick models without those notes.
The CLI is a terminal UI with no scripted or CI mode, so it will not replace automation hooks.
Model access depends on your country and VPN status, and a limited mode exists.

None of this is hidden. It is on the homepage and in the picker. Weigh it against a year of subscription invoices and the decision gets simple.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Freebuff actually free, or free software with a separate model bill?

It is free end to end. Text ads fund the product, including model and token costs, so there is no subscription, no API key, no credit card, and no per-token charge. OpenCode is the contrast case: free software, but you pay a model provider for usage yourself.

What are the usage limits?

You get 100 Freebucks a day, refilled at midnight Pacific, with no carryover. A session runs about an hour and is billed at the selected model's hourly rate, shown in the /model picker. Access also depends on your country and VPN status, and some models require a paid plan.

Do the models run on my machine?

No. The Desktop and CLI apps run locally, and model inference happens over the internet, the same way Claude Code, Cursor, and OpenCode reach their models. There is no local model setup to configure.

What should I test before signing the contract?

Give every candidate the same work: a real bug, a refactor you have been avoiding, and a code review. Set up AGENTS.md and .agents/mcp.json the way you would in production, try freebuff --continue across a few days, and watch the Freebucks meter over a normal workload. Then compare output quality, not demo impressions.

Conclusion

The contract will still be there in two weeks. Install the Freebuff CLI, run it on work that matters, and put it next to the paid agents on your shortlist. If it holds up, you do not need the signature. If it does not, sign knowing exactly what you are paying for. Either way, freebuff.com costs nothing to check.