Does Continue or Haystack have a free plan?

Continue is available for free. Haystack is available for free. Always verify current pricing directly with the vendor.

Continue vs Haystack

Q: Can I use Continue and Haystack together?

Yes, many teams use both tools together for different purposes. Use the Stack Builder section above to combine Continue and Haystack with other tools and save your AI toolkit.

Comprehensive side-by-side comparison — features, pricing, performance, and more.

Updated May 2026

Continue

Continue, Inc.

Source-controlled AI checks on every pull request for software quality control.

0.0(0)

FREEMIUM

95% data quality

Haystack

deepset GmbH

Open-source AI framework for production-ready agents, RAG, and context engineering.

0.0(0)

FREEMIUM

88% data quality

Trust & Reliability

Continue

Uptime:99.983%Status page

Users:100K-1M

Haystack

Users:10K-100K

Overall Winner: Haystack

7.5/10 vs Continue at 6.8/10

Leads in:

Value for Money

Support

Integrations

AI Comparison Summary

Continue

6.8

avg score

Haystack

7.5

avg score

Haystack leads overall — particularly in Value for Money.

Based on 6 dimensions

How scores are calculated

Overall Winner

Haystack

7.5 / 10

Continue

Best For

Automating code quality enforcement for development teams

Maintaining consistent engineering standards across projects

Streamlining pull request reviews with AI-suggested fixes

Designing and deploying custom AI agents for code analysis

Not Ideal For

Creative content generation (e.g., marketing copy, images)

Non-technical users without coding or CI/CD pipeline knowledge

General purpose AI chatbot interactions

Haystack

Best For

Building production-ready AI agents

Developing advanced RAG pipelines

Creating multimodal AI applications

Orchestrating complex LLM workflows

Not Ideal For

Non-technical users seeking a no-code AI solution

Simple, single-model AI tasks without complex orchestration needs

Users who prefer a fully managed, proprietary platform without code involvement

* Verdict is based on our algorithmic scoring of publicly available data. Learn about our methodology

Continue is best for

✍️Writing & Content7.0💬Chat & Conversation7.0🤖Automation & Agents7.0

Haystack is best for

✍️Writing & Content8.0💬Chat & Conversation8.0🤖Automation & Agents7.0

Filter by your use case:

Pros & Cons

Continue

Pros

Enforces specific, human-defined engineering standards with AI
Provides suggested fixes directly within GitHub pull requests
Scales with development factory speed, checking every PR automatically
Offers centralized management and control over AI agents for teams
Open-source CLI and IDE extensions available for local use

Cons

Pricing is usage-based, which can be unpredictable for high-volume use
Requires defining checks in markdown, which might have a learning curve
Focuses on code quality and enforcement, not broad creative generation
Limited information on specific AI models used, beyond "frontier models"

Haystack

Pros

Open-source with a strong community
Highly modular and flexible architecture
Extensive integrations with models and databases
Supports complex agentic workflows with full control
Designed for rapid prototyping to production deployment

Cons

Text-to-SQL capabilities are still evolving and require careful evaluation
Retrieval augmentation performance can be challenging with unbalanced datasets
Fine-tuning open-source models requires suitable, domain-specific datasets for optimal performance

Weighted Score — Adjust What Matters to You

Pick a profile or drag sliders — scores and radar update instantly on the right.

Quick profiles:

Ease of Use5

Output Quality5

Value for Money5

Customizability5

Support & Ecosystem5

Integration Power5

Dimension Comparison

Continue

6.8

/ 10

Haystack

7.5

/ 10

Your pick

Dimension Breakdown

Ease of Use

How easy it is to get started and use daily

Continue

6.0

Haystack

6.0

Output Quality

Quality and accuracy of generated results

Continue

7.0

Haystack

7.0

Value for Money

Cost vs. features and output quality

Continue

6.0

Haystack

8.0▲ +2.0

Customizability

Calculated

Ability to tailor to specific needs

Continue

8.0

Haystack

8.0

Support & Ecosystem

Documentation, community, and support quality

Continue

7.0

Haystack

8.0▲ +1.0

Integration Power

Calculated

Ability to connect with other tools and workflows

Continue

7.0

Haystack

8.0▲ +1.0

Calculated = derived from verified integration count and API/open-source signals. AI = LLM-assessed from public website content. Methodology

Task Performance

Continue

Task

Haystack

6.0

Code Completion

2.0

7.0

Bug Detection

3.0

5.0

Code Explanation

3.0

6.0

Refactoring

3.0

4.0

Test Generation

2.0

7.0

Multi Language Support

7.0

Context Understanding

8.0

5.0

Documentation Generation

4.0

6.0

Performance Optimization

4.0

7.0

Security Scanning

2.0

* Task scores (1–10) are algorithmically generated from publicly available data.

Data is sourced from public information and vendor websites. It may not always be up-to-date — verify pricing and features directly with the vendor before purchasing.Report inaccuracy

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Continue or Haystack?

Both are strong options. Continue has a rating of 0.0/5 (0 reviews), while Haystack has a rating of 0.0/5 (0 reviews). The best choice depends on your specific use case, budget, and workflow requirements.

Is Continue cheaper than Haystack?

Continue starts at $3/month (freemium model). Haystack starts at free (freemium model). Use the Cost Calculator above for a detailed estimate.

What are the main differences between Continue and Haystack?

Continue — "Source-controlled AI checks on every pull request for software quality control.". Haystack — "Open-source AI framework for production-ready agents, RAG, and context engineering.". Key differences include their pricing models, platform support, integrations, and technical capabilities. See the Feature Comparison table above for a complete side-by-side breakdown.

Can I use Continue and Haystack together?

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