Continue vs Sourcegraph Cody for Australians 2026: Open Freedom or Enterprise Power?

Pricing figures updated 6 September 2026: USD prices are converted at the current rate (1 USD ≈ 1.40 AUD, verified 5 September 2026) and shown ex-GST, replacing the retired 1.55 + GST basis. A GST-registered Australian business that supplies its ABN is not charged GST on an imported digital service; other buyers should allow ~10% on top (Methodology).

Winner: Continue for most Australian developers and small teams — it's free, open-source, lets you bring any model (including a local one that keeps your code on Australian soil), and costs you nothing but your own API tokens. Pick Sourcegraph Cody only if you're a large Australian company with a sprawling multi-repository codebase and the budget for an enterprise contract that starts at US$16,000 (~A$22,470 ex-GST). Continue scores 14/25, Cody 13/25 — both land at three stars, and neither clears our Australian Fit gate, so neither is a category Top Pick.

Last reviewed: 25 June 2026 by Adam.

If you want an AI coding assistant that's open or extensible rather than a closed box, these are the two names that come up — and they could hardly be more different in how they reach you. Continue is the free, open-source, bring-your-own-model extension that earned 3.4 million installs. Sourcegraph Cody is the codebase-aware enterprise tool that reads context across your whole organisation. One asks nothing of your wallet and everything of your setup skills; the other asks for a purchase order and a sales call. The right answer depends almost entirely on the size of your team and the size of your codebase.

At a glance

What both tools actually do

Both plug into your editor and do the now-standard coding-assistant jobs: chat about your code, autocomplete as you type, rewrite a selected block from a plain-English instruction, and run multi-file agent tasks. Both support VS Code and JetBrains, the two editors most Australian developers actually use. From there they diverge sharply — on openness, on context, and on who they'll sell to.

Continue is the open-source on-ramp. Licensed under Apache 2.0, it runs as a VS Code or JetBrains extension (and a CLI) and lets you point it at whatever model you like — Anthropic's Claude, OpenAI's GPT, Google's Gemini, or a model running entirely on your own machine through Ollama. You bring the key or the local model; Continue is the interface. It covers four modes — Chat, Autocomplete, Edit and Agent — and its defining trait is freedom: no subscription, no lock-in, and the option to keep everything offline. The shadow over it is that Cursor acquired Continue in April 2026, and the main GitHub repository is now read-only and no longer actively maintained.

Sourcegraph Cody is the enterprise heavyweight. It sits on top of Sourcegraph's code-search platform, so instead of only seeing the file in front of you, it pulls relevant functions, types and documentation from across your whole codebase — including multiple separate repositories at once. That cross-repo context is its genuine edge. But Sourcegraph discontinued the Cody Free and Cody Pro plans in mid-2025 (new signups closed 25 June 2025, existing free and pro accounts terminated 23 July 2025), folding Cody into an enterprise-only platform. Individual developers now get pointed at a separate product, Amp.

In short: Continue gives any developer freedom for nothing but the model bill; Cody gives large teams codebase-wide intelligence for enterprise money. Your team size decides it.

Pricing in Australia

Neither tool bills in Australian dollars, and the two sit at opposite ends of the price spectrum.

Continue is free. The open-source extension gives you the full Chat, Edit, Autocomplete and Agent experience at no cost to Continue itself — your only real bill is whatever you pay Anthropic, OpenAI or Google for tokens, billed in USD with GST handling depending on each provider. Run a local model through Ollama and even that cost drops to effectively zero. Continue also ran a paid "Continue Hub" for teams, but since the Cursor acquisition the pricing page no longer publishes Hub tiers — it redirects to the acquisition notice — so we won't quote a seat price we can't verify on a live vendor page. The part most people use costs nothing.

Cody is the opposite story: you can't find out what it costs without talking to sales. Cody is sold only inside Sourcegraph Enterprise, and the public pricing page lists a single starting figure — "Starting at US$16,000" (~A$22,470 ex-GST), an annual number that includes AI-feature credits and scales with team size. A per-seat figure of around US$59/user/month (~A$83/mo ex-GST) circulates across third-party reviews, but it does not appear on any Sourcegraph-owned page, so treat it as unconfirmed. GST treatment on a US-dollar enterprise contract is itself unconfirmed and will depend on how Sourcegraph invoices an Australian entity.

The honest read: there is no contest on entry cost. Continue is free; Cody starts at a five-figure annual commitment you have to phone for. For a Melbourne dev shop of three, that alone settles it. The only place Cody's price makes sense is a large team whose codebase is genuinely big enough that cross-repo context pays for itself.

Where Continue wins

• It's free and open-source. Apache 2.0, no subscription for the core product, and you can read, fork or self-host the code. You only ever pay model providers.
• Model freedom. Claude, GPT, Gemini, or a local model via Ollama — swap per task. No other mainstream assistant gives you this much latitude, and Cody won't even name its model line-up publicly.
• Real offline mode. Pair it with a local model and your code never touches a third-party server — it stays on your own hardware, on Australian soil. That's a genuine data-residency answer, not a marketing line, and it's worth a lot to a Sydney firm with client-confidentiality concerns.
• A real on-ramp for small teams. Solo developers, two-person startups and curious individuals can all start today for nothing. Cody slammed that door shut in 2025.
• Mature and widely used. 3.4 million-plus VS Code installs plus a JetBrains plugin mean it's battle-tested, not a weekend project.

Where Sourcegraph Cody wins

• Multi-repository context. Cody pulls relevant code from across many repos at once. In a large enterprise monorepo this is a real, measurable advantage over tools — Continue included — that mostly work from the files in front of them.
• It's actively supported. This is the flip side of Continue's biggest weakness. Cody is sold and maintained by an established vendor with enterprise-tier support, where Continue's main repo is now frozen and unmaintained after the Cursor buyout.
• Admin control over context. Context filters let admins exclude sensitive repositories from the AI entirely — a sensible guardrail for regulated Australian work.
• No training on your code. Sourcegraph states it doesn't use your data to train models — a stated guarantee for Enterprise customers that matters for any AU business handling client code.
• Deployment flexibility. Self-hosted deployment is offered alongside managed cloud, which could satisfy a sovereignty requirement — though how far the self-hosted option goes (and whether a fully air-gapped install is supported) isn't spelled out publicly, so confirm with sales.

Which to pick — decision framework

• You're a solo developer or a small team → Continue. It's free, it works today, and there's simply no on-ramp into Cody at your size.
• You're a large company with a sprawling, multi-repo codebase → Cody. Its cross-repository context is the one thing Continue can't match, and at scale it can justify the enterprise price.
• You need code to stay in Australia → Continue, paired with a local model through Ollama. Cody offers self-hosting but confirms no Australian data residency on its primary pages.
• You need a supported tool that will still be patched in two years → Cody. Continue's repo is read-only and unmaintained, so you'd be self-maintaining.
• You want to choose your own AI model → Continue. Cody picks the model for you and won't even publish the line-up.
• You're not a developer → neither. Both are tools for people comfortable with config files, API keys or sales contracts. Look at GitHub Copilot for an easier on-ramp.

The verdict

Winner: Continue, for the developer or small team this publication serves. It's free, it's open, it lets you run any model — including a local one that keeps your code on Australian soil — and it earned its 3.4 million installs honestly. The warning light is real: Cursor bought it in April 2026, the main repo is now read-only, and the original team has stopped maintaining it. For a hobbyist or a developer happy to fork and self-maintain, that's a manageable risk against an unbeatable price. For a business that needs something supported and around in two years, it's a reason to pause.

Sourcegraph Cody is the better tool only in one specific situation — a large Australian company with a tangled multi-repository codebase, where the cross-repo context is a genuine edge and the US$16,000 floor is a rounding error against headcount. Everywhere else, the enterprise-only pivot, the opaque US-dollar pricing and the absent Australian data-residency story make it the wrong shop. Continue takes it 14/25 to 13/25, but the scores understate how cleanly the two split by buyer: free and open for the many, enterprise and powerful for the few. Both land at three stars, and under our Australian Fit gate neither — at 3/5 and 2/5 — can be named the category Top Pick. This category still lacks a local champion.

This comparison is general information, not professional advice. If you're handling regulated, legal or financial code, confirm data-handling and compliance requirements for your circumstances before committing.

Frequently asked questions

Are Continue and Sourcegraph Cody available in Australia?

Yes — both work from Australia. Continue's free, open-source extension is global and indifferent to where you are. Cody is available only as part of Sourcegraph's enterprise platform; its free and solo plans were terminated on 23 July 2025, so there's no on-ramp for freelancers or small AU teams.

Which is cheaper, Continue or Cody?

Continue, by a wide margin. Its core extension is free and open-source — you only pay model providers (in USD) for tokens, or nothing at all with a local model. Cody is sold inside Sourcegraph Enterprise starting at US$16,000 (~A$22,470 ex-GST) annually, with no published per-seat price you can sign up for online.

Can I keep my code in Australia with either tool?

Continue is the clear answer here: pair it with a local model through Ollama and your code never leaves your machine, on Australian soil. Cody offers self-hosted deployment and states it doesn't train on your code, but no primary source confirms Australian-hosted data — get any commitment in writing before signing.

Is Continue still safe to adopt after the Cursor buyout?

Cautiously. Cursor acquired Continue in April 2026 and the main repository is now read-only and unmaintained. It's fine for a developer happy to self-maintain, but riskier for a business that needs supported software in two years. Cody, by contrast, is actively sold and supported.

Which is better for Australians?

Continue edges it at 14/25 (AU Fit 3/5) against Cody's 13/25 (AU Fit 2/5), mostly on price, model freedom and the genuine offline option. But under our Australian Fit gate, neither clears 4/5 on Australian Fit, so neither can be the category Top Pick. Pick Continue if you're a small team; pick Cody only if you're a large enterprise with a multi-repo codebase.

Read next

• Full reviews: Continue (14/25) and Sourcegraph Cody (13/25)
• Category guide: Best Coding & Development AI tools in Australia 2026
• How we score: Methodology

Sources

This comparison draws on The AI Directory Australia's underlying reviews of Continue (14/25, AU Fit 3/5) and Sourcegraph Cody (13/25, AU Fit 2/5), each scored against our five-criteria framework and verified against the vendors' own pages on 20 June 2026. Continue's free/open-source status and the Cursor acquisition (April 2026, repo now read-only) are carried from that verified review; Cody's US$16,000 Enterprise floor is confirmed on Sourcegraph's own pricing page, while the ~US$59/user/month per-seat figure is third-party-sourced and unconfirmed. Star ratings and Top Pick eligibility follow our Australian Fit gate. USD-to-AUD estimates use USD→AUD 1.4045 (ECB reference rate, 18 September 2026) and are shown ex-GST: a GST-registered Australian business that supplies its ABN is not charged GST on an imported digital service, and an unregistered buyer should allow ~10% on top; neither vendor documents Australian GST. Wayback Machine snapshots queued.

The AI Directory Australia is an independent editorial publication. Read our Methodology and Affiliate Disclosure.

Synthesised from The AI Directory's verified Continue and Sourcegraph Cody reviews (20 June 2026). Continue's paid-tier pricing and Cody's per-seat figure remain unconfirmed — confirm live pricing before purchase.