Claude Code vs Devin: AI Coding Tools Comparison for Developers

Which is better, Claude Code or Devin?

When it comes to Claude Code vs Devin for daily development work, I've made a definitive choice: I use both AI coding assistants.

Lately I've been using Devin and Claude Code almost exclusively for my day-to-day development work. They've become my first step for everything. I haven't started a coding task solo in weeks.

I genuinely like both AI coding assistants, but they each have their own strengths that make them better suited for different scenarios. Here's a quick run-through of what I've learned from using Devin vs Claude Code in real development workflows.

Claude Code vs Devin: At a glance

What are Devin’s strengths in AI coding?

Devin runs in a VM.

1. Devin is great for quick exploration: It indexes all your repos, so context is instant.
2. Devin really wants to help: Sometimes a little too eager. I’ve had to set boundaries: “Don’t open PRs or commit without asking.”
3. Neat bonus: Devin reacts to PR feedback automatically. Super handy.

What are Claude Code’s strengths in AI coding?

Claude Code runs in your terminal.

1. Claude Code lives right in the CLI, which honestly feels like home for most devs. No need to leave your flow or use an IDE.
2. Claude Code is really solid for stacked PRs. (I’ve been using git worktrees with it.)
3. Claude Code has direct access to your local environment, so no extra tool installation like in a VM.

What are common lessons and best practices for both Claude Code and Devin?

I still review everything, of course. But I'm no longer starting tasks alone — and the pace + quality are better because of it.

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     Keep tasks small
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     Like humans, they get lost in too much context.
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     Always ask for a plan first.
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     Don’t let the agent implement without your approval.
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     Give guardrails
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     For example, “build, test, and lint after completing each step.”
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More details in my video below.

Full Video Transcript: Devin vs Claude Code in Daily Dev Work

So in the last couple of weeks, I have been almost exclusively using Devin and Claude Code for my day-to-day work. I don't start any tasks as a human. I go to Devin or ClaudeCode first. So I have some learnings and some kind of ideas on how I use them and stuff that I've noticed about them both.

Well, the first thing that I've noticed based on my personal usage is that Devin, it's a lot better for quick exploration and search capabilities. And this is because they index all the reports that you give access to. So it's very snappy. It can find implementations of things that you don't know about or help you investigate how a certain feature works and even in what repo it is implemented.

One of the cons that I have to say about Devin is that sometimes it is a little bit too eager. Like I sometimes have it work on a feature and even before finding an agreement between me and Devin, it starts committing code, it starts opening a PR and sometimes I have to drop it. That's a little bit on the cons side.

Cool thing is that it reacts to feedback from pull requests automatically. It's constantly pulling for continuous integration status, like unit tests that may run. And if they break, it tries to fix them by itself. And even to comments from actual humans, from your teammates on the PR. It can react to those comments and act accordingly.

About Cloud Code, one thing that I really like is that it lives in your terminal. It's most of the developers' happy place, and I guess it was a really good choice because it is not tied to any IDE. It's very good for stacked PRs. I personally use Git work trees to work with this. So sometimes if I'm working on something that I know is going to have to be reused in the second PR and the first one is not even merged, I just open a work tree based on the first one. And I sometimes can even work in parallel with two clots.

And another good thing is that since it's in your local machine, it has access to your local environment. And maybe you have some tool that you have built for yourself, or maybe if you had your laptop for many years, you have tons of tools that will be hard to install in Devlin's virtual machine, for example. So that's a really good pro.

Common lessons for both. I think both work better when you give them tasks with a small scope. Like if you have a super large task, they sometimes get kind of lost when they have to do too many things at once. So same as a human, you can break down tasks into smaller subtasks and maybe work on those and you'll get better results.

In the past couple of weeks I asked them to come up with a plan even before writing the code. So I found that I have much better outcomes when I tell them to start coding after I have agreed with the plan. And maybe I don't lose too many tokens while we are working on the feature.

Another cool thing that I've been trying with both is that I give them commands to test before proceeding to the next stage in the plan. I usually just tell them to, whenever you finish an item in the plan, run the build, run the tests, and run the linter to see if something needs to be changed. Yeah, that has been very, very positive in my experience with these two in the last couple of weeks.

Claude Code vs Devin: Which Should You Choose?

Both tools excel in different scenarios. Choose Devin for repository exploration and automated PR management, or Claude Code for terminal-native development and local environment integration.

I publish my thoughts on AI and experience with AI coding tools frequently. Follow me on LinkedIn to stay in touch.