Continue Review Australia 2026: Is the Open-Source Coding Agent Still Worth It After the Cursor Buyout?

Verdict (TL;DR): Continue is a genuinely free, open-source AI coding agent that plugs into VS Code and JetBrains and lets you bring your own model — Claude, GPT, Gemini, or a local model through Ollama. For a developer who wants control and no subscription, it's one of the best things going. But there's a catch you can't ignore: Cursor acquired Continue in June 2026, and the project has shipped no new release since. The repository is still open, but it is not being developed. You'd be adopting a tool that just lost its engine room.

Score: 14/25 — ⭐⭐⭐ Good

Last reviewed: 20 June 2026 by Adam.

⚠ Continue has been wound down. Do not adopt the hosted product. continue.dev now carries only a farewell — “Continue has joined Cursor” — recurring billing was disabled, and user data was permanently deleted after 15 July 2026. The open-source codebase remains freely available and can still be self-hosted with your own model; that is the only form of Continue that still exists. The 14/25 below is kept as a dated record.

Vendor page read at primary, 23 September 2026.

What Continue is

Continue is an open-source AI coding assistant. It runs as an extension inside Visual Studio Code or JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm and the rest), and also ships as a command-line tool. It is licensed under Apache 2.0, which means the core software is free to use, modify, and self-host.

The pitch that made it popular: it doesn't lock you to one AI model. Where GitHub Copilot ties you to OpenAI's models and Cursor runs its own stack, Continue lets you point it at whatever model you want. You can wire in Anthropic's Claude, OpenAI's GPT, Google's Gemini, or run a model entirely on your own machine through Ollama with no data leaving your laptop. You bring the key (or the local model); Continue is the interface.

It has four working modes: Chat (ask questions about your code without leaving the editor), Autocomplete (inline suggestions as you type), Edit (select a block, describe the change in plain English, let it rewrite), and Agent (turn it loose on multi-file changes across a codebase). The VS Code extension alone has racked up over 3.4 million installs.

Then, in June 2026, Cursor — the AI coding startup — acquired Continue. The Continue homepage now reads "Continue has been acquired by Cursor," and the project stopped shipping: v2.0.0 and v2.1.0 both released on 19 June 2026 and nothing since. The repository itself is not archived and not read-only — it took documentation commits as late as 21 July, one of them titled “remove Sign in link (login flow retired)”, which is the clearest public sign the hosted service was being wound down. That single fact reshapes this entire review.

What it costs in Australia

The core extension is free. Continue also ran a paid "Continue Hub" for teams who wanted shared configuration and managed model access. There is no AUD billing and no Australian-hosted billing entity that we could find — paid tiers were priced in US dollars.

The bigger problem for anyone weighing the paid side: since the Cursor acquisition, Continue's pricing page no longer publishes Hub tiers at all. It now redirects to the acquisition notice. That means we cannot verify current Hub pricing, inclusions, or whether the paid tiers are still being sold under the Continue name. So the only tier we can stand behind today is the free, open-source one.

The honest position on paid pricing: Continue's pricing page was taken down to an acquisition notice, so we will not print a Hub seat price we cannot verify on a live vendor page. If you need a managed, billed tier, confirm what is still on offer — and in what currency — directly with the vendor before relying on it.

The honest framing for an Australian buyer: the part most people will use — the free extension plus their own Claude or GPT API key — costs you nothing to Continue. Your real bill is whatever you pay Anthropic, OpenAI or Google for tokens, and that's billed in USD by those providers, GST handling depending on each. If you run a local model through Ollama, the running cost is effectively zero.

How it works in practice

You install the extension, open the Continue panel, and tell it which model to use. For a non-developer this is already a wall — you need an API key from a model provider, or Ollama installed locally. There's no "sign up and go" path the way Copilot offers. This is a tool for people comfortable editing a config file.

Once configured, the day-to-day is smooth. Highlight a function, hit Edit, type "add error handling and convert this to async" — it rewrites in place and you accept or reject the diff. Chat answers questions against your open files. Autocomplete behaves like Copilot. Agent mode will plan and apply changes across several files, which is the headline feature and the one most likely to surprise you (good and bad).

The standout is control. You decide which model sees your code, and with a local model, none of it leaves your machine. For a Sydney firm with client confidentiality concerns, that "runs fully offline" option is worth more than any feature on a Copilot spec sheet.

What it does well

• Genuinely free and open-source (Apache 2.0). No subscription for the core product. You can read the code, fork it, self-host it.
• Model freedom. Claude, GPT, Gemini, or local via Ollama — swap models per task. No other mainstream assistant gives you this much latitude.
• Real offline mode. Pair it with a local model and your code never touches a third-party server. That's a genuine data-residency answer, not a marketing line.
• Mature and widely used. 3.4M+ VS Code installs and a JetBrains plugin mean it's battle-tested, not a weekend project.
• Four useful modes in one tool. Chat, Edit, Autocomplete and Agent cover the full span of what you'd want day to day.

What it doesn't do well

• Development has stopped. This is the big one. The last release was v2.1.0 on 19 June 2026 and there has been none since; the only later activity is documentation, ending 21 July. The repository is open, not archived — you can still fork it — but nobody is shipping to it. Bugs won't get fixed by the original team. You're adopting software with no clear maintenance future.
• Steep setup for non-developers. You must supply your own API key or stand up a local model. There is no friendly onboarding. A 35-year-old Melbourne business owner who isn't a coder will bounce off it immediately — this is a developer tool, full stop.
• You assemble the experience. Quality depends entirely on the model you wire in. Choose a weak or wrongly-configured model and the output is poor, and that's on you, not Continue.
• No AUD billing, no AU support. Paid Hub tiers are USD-only with no Australian entity, no local support line, and US-based infrastructure for hosted features.
• Uncertain roadmap under Cursor. Cursor competes directly in this space. Continue has not published a forward roadmap since the acquisition, so whether the tool stays open and independent, gets folded in, or quietly winds down is genuinely unknown — we found no primary statement either way.

Australian fit

This is where Continue scores oddly. On data residency, it's one of the best options in the category: run a local model through Ollama and your code stays on Australian soil, on your own hardware, with zero offshore transfer. For a law firm, accountant or health-tech shop with confidentiality obligations, that's a serious advantage Copilot and Cursor can't match.

But everything around that is weak for Australians. There's no AUD billing, no Australian support presence, and the paid Hub runs on US infrastructure. The free extension is global and indifferent to where you are — which is fine, but means there's nothing built for Australians here either. And the frozen-repo problem hits AU users the same as everyone: no local champion is going to keep it patched.

Net: excellent if you self-host a local model and never touch the paid tier; thoroughly average if you want a supported, billed, Australian-friendly product. Australian Fit lands at 3/5 — saved from lower only by the genuine offline/local-model path.

Alternatives

• GitHub Copilot — far easier to set up, billed and supported, but locked to OpenAI models and no offline option. The default pick for non-tinkerers.
• Claude — if you mostly want a strong model to chat code with rather than an in-editor agent, going straight to Claude is simpler and you're paying the source directly.
• Cursor — the company that now owns Continue; a polished, paid, all-in-one AI editor. Ironically the most direct alternative, and the one with the clearer future. [Not yet reviewed]

Bottom line

Continue is a smart, free, open-source tool that earned its 3.4 million installs honestly. If you're a developer who wants to choose your own model and keep code on your own machine, it remains one of the best free options in this category, and the local-model privacy story is genuinely strong for Australian firms with confidentiality concerns.

But I can't ignore the elephant. Cursor bought Continue in June 2026, the last release was v2.1.0 on 19 June, and the original team has stopped shipping. The repository is still open — you can fork it — but nobody is developing it. Adopting it today means betting on software whose future just got murky. For a hobbyist or a developer happy to fork and self-maintain, it's still a confident yes. For a business that needs something supported and around in two years, wait and see what Cursor does with it — or pick a tool that isn't frozen. Good, with a warning light on.

Score

Frequently asked questions

Is Continue available in Australia?

Yes — the free, open-source extension is global and works fine from Australia. But there's nothing built for Australians: no AUD billing, no local support, and the paid Hub runs on US infrastructure.

Does Continue cost anything?

The core extension is free and open-source (Apache 2.0). Your real cost is whatever you pay Anthropic, OpenAI or Google for tokens, billed in USD. A local model through Ollama costs effectively nothing.

Is there a free version?

Yes — the open-source extension gives full Chat, Edit, Autocomplete and Agent modes; you bring your own model or keys. The paid Continue Hub tiers are no longer published since the Cursor acquisition, so treat them as unconfirmed.

Can I keep my code in Australia with Continue?

Yes — this is its standout. Pair it with a local model through Ollama and your code never leaves your machine, on Australian soil. That's a genuine data-residency answer Copilot and Cursor can't match.

Should I still adopt Continue after the Cursor buyout?

Cautiously. Cursor acquired it in June 2026 and it has had no release since v2.1.0 on 19 June. The repo is open but unmaintained. Fine for a developer happy to self-maintain; risky for a business needing supported software in two years.

Sources

• Continue homepage (acquisition notice — "Continue has been acquired by Cursor"): https://www.continue.dev/ — checked 20 June 2026; Wayback snapshot to be captured on publish
• Continue GitHub repository (Apache 2.0 licence; read-only / no-longer-maintained notice; 2.0.0 release): https://github.com/continuedev/continue — checked 20 June 2026; Wayback snapshot to be captured on publish
• Continue pricing page — no longer redirects to the acquisition notice; now a hard HTTP 404 (found 21 Sep 2026) — ~~https://www.continue.dev/pricing~~ — checked 20 June 2026, re-checked 21 September 2026. No live successor exists to repoint to; see the dated Update history entry above for the wider discontinuation context. Wayback: capture pending (archive.org unavailable 21 Sep 2026).
• Continue docs (product modes): https://docs.continue.dev/ — checked 20 June 2026; Wayback snapshot to be captured on publish
• Visual Studio Marketplace (3,404,904 installs as at review date; four modes): https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Continue.continue — checked 20 June 2026; Wayback snapshot to be captured on publish

The AI Directory Australia is an independent publication. We review AI tools for Australian users and accept no payment for positive coverage. Affiliate links, where present, are disclosed. This review reflects our honest assessment as at the last-reviewed date and is not professional advice. Reviewed by Adam.

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