Two code & development tools, one decision. Here is the honest split.
| DeepSeek | GitHub Copilot | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Paid |
| Best at | Free, capable code help and reasoning tasks without a subscription. | In-flow code completion and boilerplate elimination while you type. |
| In short | A strong open-weights model family with a free chat interface, particularly competitive at code and math. | The original AI pair programmer, living inside your editor. Completes code, writes tests, and answers in chat. |
| On Atlas | 3 starter prompts | 3 starter prompts |
Pick DeepSeek when the job is Free, capable code help and reasoning tasks without a subscription.. Pick GitHub Copilot when the job is In-flow code completion and boilerplate elimination while you type.. Still torn? Run one real task through both free tiers. An hour of testing beats a week of reviews.
Here is my code: [paste code]. Find the three most likely bugs or edge cases, explain each in one sentence, then show the fixed code with tests.