The Individual plan is free, while teams can upgrade to the $20/user/mo tier for collaborative features.
Best for: Organizations needing team collaboration and enterprise-grade security
Independent analysis · Cline
Cline disrupts the AI coding space by offering a free platform subscription for its Individual plan and a Teams plan that is permanently free for the first 10 seats, well below the category median of $30/mo. However, because it operates on a "bring your own API key" model, users do not get bundled AI compute. While the software itself is essentially free or highly affordable, the actual value depends entirely on your choice of external LLM providers and your API consumption.
Users frequently complain that Cline's agentic workflow can burn through massive budgets in an incredibly short time when using premium models like Claude 3.5 Sonnet. Some developers report spending hundreds of dollars in just a few days without achieving a working solution.
"spent $400, and I still can’t get it to"
"can easily burn through $20 in a day"
"it feels too expensive for my needs."
Based on analysis of recent Reddit and G2 discussions.
The Teams plan at $20/user/mo offers completely free and open source.
"The best Cline alternatives are Miro, Creately, and Alteryx"
G2
""cline review"
. July 20, 2016. 5.0. Overall Rating. 5.0. Ease of Use. 5.0. Customer" - Capterra
"I've worked with Cline on 3 projects (react js and next js, both with"
User review
"roo-cline is less expensive, but still - why not just pay a fixed $10-$20 monthly plan"
Reddit (negative)
"I am finding myself turning to Cline on complex tasks"
Reddit (positive)
"extremely expensive... i usually use it for debugging when the other fails."
Reddit (positive)
The Individual and Teams plans are excellent for developers who already have API credits, run local models via Ollama, or only need an agent for occasional, highly complex debugging tasks. However, heavy users seeking budget predictability should consider Cursor at $20/mo for its flat-rate unlimited plans.
List price covers the subscription. Total cost of ownership for Cline typically includes additional line items that don't appear on the pricing page.
How does Cline pricing compare?
See how Cline's 3 pricing plans stack up against similar AI Coding Tools tools.
Research Reports