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Developer Tools · head to head

Cody vs Dagger

Cody logo

Cody

Developer Tools

AI coding assistant powered by code search

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Dagger logo

Dagger

Developer Tools

Programmable CI/CD engine that runs your pipeline as containers on any runner

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Cody sourcegraph now publishes a single Enterprise plan starting at $16K, with no free or individual Pro tier listed on the pricing page; Dagger dagger is not a CI provider, so you keep paying for GitHub Actions or GitLab runners underneath it; the Dagger Cloud subscription is an addition to your CI bill, not a replacement for it.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Cody and Dagger actually diverge.

Attributes where Cody and Dagger differ
AttributeCodyDagger
Pricing modelfreemiumPer month per team for Dagger Cloud
PlatformsWebLinux, macOS, Windows, Self-hosted
Founded2013Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Developer Tools).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Cody

Nothing recorded that Dagger does not also cover.

Only in Dagger

  • Pipelines as code
  • Local and CI parity
  • Content-addressed caching
  • Dagger Functions and modules
  • CI-provider agnostic
  • Dagger Cloud traces
  • GitHub Checks integration
  • Container-native execution

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Cody

  • Code completion and intelligent autocomplete in IDEsnot Dagger
  • Developer chat with codebase context awarenessnot Dagger
  • Automated debugging and error identificationnot Dagger
  • Customizable prompts for workflow automationnot Dagger

Dagger

  • A platform team maintaining near-identical build YAML across forty repositories that wants one versioned module every repository calls insteadnot Cody
  • An engineering organisation migrating off a CI provider that does not want to rewrite every pipeline as part of the migrationnot Cody
  • A team whose engineers waste hours pushing commits to debug CI-only failures and needs to reproduce the exact run locallynot Cody
  • A monorepo where most commits touch a small subset of services and cache-accurate step skipping cuts build minutes materiallynot Cody

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Cody

  • Sourcegraph now publishes a single Enterprise plan starting at $16K, with no free or individual Pro tier listed on the pricing page
  • sourcegraph.com/cody redirects to the documentation rather than a Cody product or pricing page
  • AI features are metered as credits included per user, and exceeding the allocation requires buying a higher volume bucket
  • Volume credit buckets are sold as an add-on rather than included
  • A customer success manager and premium support are optional paid extras on top of the Enterprise plan
  • Standard support is 24x5 rather than 24x7, with round-the-clock coverage sold as an upgrade
  • The published $16K figure is a starting price that scales with team size, so the actual cost is quoted rather than listed

Dagger

  • Dagger is not a CI provider, so you keep paying for GitHub Actions or GitLab runners underneath it; the Dagger Cloud subscription is an addition to your CI bill, not a replacement for it.
  • Writing pipelines in Go or TypeScript raises the barrier to entry: a release engineer who could edit a YAML step now needs to read code, and the people who can fix a broken build shrink to those comfortable with the SDK.
  • The engine runs as a container on the runner and needs a persistent cache volume to deliver its main benefit, so ephemeral CI runners give you correctness without the speed, and provisioning durable cache storage is extra platform work.
  • The Team plan caps at ten users and ten million events per month; an organisation of any size crosses that quickly and moves to Enterprise pricing that is not published, so cost at scale is unknowable up front.
  • The module ecosystem is young and thinly maintained relative to the marketplace of a mature CI provider, so integrations that exist as a one-line Action often have to be written yourself as a Dagger function.

Pricing, plan by plan

Cody

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Cody review.

Dagger

Free
  • IndividualFree
    • One user
    • One million events per month
    • Workflow logs and function call traces
  • Team$50/month
    • Up to ten users
    • Ten million events per month
    • Module insights and module catalogue
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Custom user and event limits
    • SSO
    • Managed single-tenant deployment

Which should you pick?

Choose Cody if

  • You want to start without paying.
Cody review

Choose Dagger if

  • You need pipelines as code.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows, Self-hosted.
  • You also want local and ci parity.
Dagger review

Questions people ask

Is Cody or Dagger better?
Neither clearly leads. Cody starts at Free and Dagger at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Cody or Dagger?
Cody starts at Free and Dagger at Free.
Does Cody or Dagger run on more platforms?
Cody runs on Web. Dagger runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, Self-hosted.
Can I use Cody for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Cody best used for?
Cody is most often used for code completion and intelligent autocomplete in ides, developer chat with codebase context awareness, automated debugging and error identification, customizable prompts for workflow automation. Of those, code completion and intelligent autocomplete in ides and developer chat with codebase context awareness are not what Dagger is typically brought in for.
What can Cody do that Dagger cannot?
Dagger covers Pipelines as code, Local and CI parity, Content-addressed caching, Dagger Functions and modules.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Cody: Is Cody free?

Cody offers a free tier for individual developers via VS Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio, and the web app. Unlimited free usage is available for solo developers.

Source
Dagger: Does Dagger replace GitHub Actions?

No. Dagger runs inside GitHub Actions or any other CI. It replaces the YAML that describes your pipeline steps, not the trigger and runner layer.

Cody: What does Cody Enterprise cost?

Cody Enterprise pricing is custom and requires contacting Sourcegraph sales. It is available for Sourcegraph Enterprise customers and must be quoted based on your deployment and usage needs.

Source
Dagger: Is the engine open source?

Yes, the Dagger engine and SDKs are open source and free. Dagger Cloud, the observability product, is what costs money.

Cody: What LLMs does Cody use?

Cody uses the latest large language models for code completions, chat, and debugging. It leverages Sourcegraph's advanced Search API to pull codebase context from local and remote repositories.

Source
Dagger: What is an event in the pricing?

Dagger Cloud meters pipeline telemetry events. One million per month is free; the Team plan at 50 USD per month allows ten million.

Dagger: Can I run the same pipeline on my laptop?

Yes, that is the main reason teams adopt it. The dagger CLI executes the identical graph locally, so CI-only failures become reproducible.

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