Developer Tools · head to head
Cody vs Tilt
Tilt
Developer Tools
Local Kubernetes development loop that rebuilds and live-updates containers on save
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
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; Tilt docker acquired Tilt in 2022 and the team now splits its time across Compose and Docker Desktop, so feature velocity is modest and the product's long-term priority inside Docker is not guaranteed; treat it as a stable utility, not a growing platform.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Cody and Tilt actually diverge.
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 Tilt does not also cover.
Only in Tilt
- Live update
- Tiltfile as code
- Unified web UI
- Selective rebuilds
- Local and remote clusters
- Resource dependencies
- Extensions registry
- Custom buttons and triggers
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Cody
- Code completion and intelligent autocomplete in IDEsnot Tilt
- Developer chat with codebase context awarenessnot Tilt
- Automated debugging and error identificationnot Tilt
- Customizable prompts for workflow automationnot Tilt
Tilt
- A team of ten or more engineers whose application is fifteen microservices on Kubernetes and who currently wait on CI to test a changenot Cody
- An organisation onboarding new developers who want a single command that stands up the whole stack from a committed Tiltfilenot Cody
- A platform team giving product engineers a consistent local environment against a shared remote development clusternot Cody
- A codebase where one repository contains several services and rebuilding all of them on every edit is the main source of lost timenot 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
Tilt
- Docker acquired Tilt in 2022 and the team now splits its time across Compose and Docker Desktop, so feature velocity is modest and the product's long-term priority inside Docker is not guaranteed; treat it as a stable utility, not a growing platform.
- The Tiltfile is Starlark, a Python dialect, so non-trivial setups become real programs that need reviewing and maintaining, and the person who wrote yours becomes a single point of failure.
- Live update only works when the running container can accept synced files and restart the process; compiled languages, distroless images and read-only filesystems often force you back to a full image rebuild, which removes the main benefit.
- It assumes Kubernetes. If your development target is plain Docker Compose or serverless functions, Tilt adds a cluster you did not need and a layer of abstraction with no payoff.
- There is no commercial support contract, no SLA and no paid tier, so when a Kubernetes version upgrade breaks something you are dependent on GitHub issues and a Slack channel rather than a vendor you can escalate to.
Pricing, plan by plan
Cody
FreeNo published plan breakdown. See the Cody review.
Tilt
Free- TiltFree
- Apache 2.0 licensed
- All features, no paid tier
- Community support via the Kubernetes Slack #tilt channel
Which should you pick?
Choose Tilt if
- You need live update.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
- You also want tiltfile as code.
Questions people ask
- Is Cody or Tilt better?
- Neither clearly leads. Cody starts at Free and Tilt at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Cody or Tilt?
- Cody starts at Free and Tilt at Free.
- Does Cody or Tilt run on more platforms?
- Cody runs on Web. Tilt runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
- 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 Tilt is typically brought in for.
- What can Cody do that Tilt cannot?
- Tilt covers Live update, Tiltfile as code, Unified web UI, Selective rebuilds.
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.
SourceTilt: Is Tilt free?
Yes, entirely. It is Apache 2.0 open source with no paid tier and no licence fee.
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.
SourceTilt: Who owns Tilt now?
Docker, which acquired it in May 2022. It remains open source and the repository is still actively maintained.
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.
SourceTilt: Do I need a remote cluster?
No. It works against a local cluster such as kind, minikube or Docker Desktop, and also against a shared remote development cluster if your services are too heavy to run locally.
Tilt: How is it different from Skaffold?
Both automate the build-deploy loop. Tilt puts more weight on the live-update path and a multi-service dashboard; Skaffold is more configuration-driven and closer to Google's tooling.
Related pages
Other head to heads
- Cody vs Turborepo
- Cody vs Visual Studio Code
- Cody vs ESLint
- Cody vs pnpm
- Cody vs Sourcegraph
- Cody vs Sweep
- Cody vs GitHub Copilot
- Cody vs Bazel
- Cody vs Fig
- Cody vs GoLand
- Cody vs Warp
- Cody vs Claude Code
- Cody vs Cloud Native Buildpacks
- Cody vs ConfigCat
- Cody vs Cortex
- Cody vs Dagger
- Cody vs Deno
- Cody vs PhpStorm
- Cody vs Okteto
- Cody vs Atlantis
- Cody vs Backstage
- Cody vs Pants Build
- Cody vs Garden
- Cody vs Jitsu
- Cody vs Frappe
- Cody vs Nixpacks
- Cody vs OpsLevel
- Cody vs PartyKit
- Cody vs Pieces for Developers
- Cody vs RAD Studio
- Cody vs Refact
- Tilt vs Turborepo
- Tilt vs Visual Studio Code
- Tilt vs ESLint
- Tilt vs pnpm
- Tilt vs Sourcegraph
- Tilt vs Sweep
- Tilt vs GitHub Copilot
- Tilt vs Bazel
- Tilt vs Fig
- Tilt vs GoLand
- Tilt vs Warp
- Tilt vs Claude Code
- Tilt vs Cloud Native Buildpacks
- Tilt vs ConfigCat
- Tilt vs Cortex
- Tilt vs Dagger
- Tilt vs Deno
- Tilt vs PhpStorm
- Tilt vs Okteto
- Tilt vs Atlantis
- Tilt vs Backstage
- Tilt vs Pants Build
- Tilt vs Garden
- Tilt vs Jitsu
- Tilt vs Frappe
- Tilt vs Nixpacks
- Tilt vs OpsLevel
- Tilt vs PartyKit
- Tilt vs Pieces for Developers
- Tilt vs RAD Studio
- Tilt vs Refact