A GitHub Co-pilot alternative? Not yet, but it's probably worth your money.
To cut to the chase, if you're a dev, particularly a polyglot dev frequently writing many different languages, you should probably get this. BUT there are some caveats...
So on the basis of my opening sentence, why only 3 tacos? Well first of all, very few tools would deserve a 5 taco rating on their first round on AppSumo. Given many tools use AppSumo as a growth platform, a consequence of this is that the software on offer is commonly in its infancy (and that's okay, we're here to support them!). Once AskJarvis reaches maturity, perhaps it will be a 5 taco product... time will tell. As for specifically why it gets 3 tacos and not 4, well... let's be fair, it has one large contender, and that contender is backed by the Microsoft machine - GitHub Co-Pilot. To call this an alternative to that right now is extremely premature, however, if the team behind AskJarvis build out the public roadmap then I think this product could be well on it's way.
Something I do like about AskJarvis, is how it's attempting to differentiate itself to co-pilot by offering some additional tools which don't come with the Github offering. Instead of simply offering auto-complete, there are additional applications such as code explainers, documentation generators, code converters (some in the roadmap), and more!
However, something pretty big that I really, *REALLY* don't like about AskJarvis (though I am wholly expecting them to improve this as part of their roadmap), is the IDE plugin (I've only tested the Rider one so far, but assume it's the same for the others too). The IDE plugin is currently extremely bare-bones. As a professional developer (this is literally my day job), I can tell you that most people don't like context switching, and the whole point of plugins is that they add additional functionality *within* the IDE. Creating lots of wonderful functionality within the AskJarvis dashboard, then offering 10% of that functionality within the plugin is not a great UX. I really, really hope they build out the plugins considerably.
Something many people will be interested in is the quality of the actual code suggestions. It's average. And average is good enough and worth your time. If you think that tech like this is at the level where we're going to get artificial Mozart's writing complete works of art, unfortunately, you're going to be sorely disappointed.
Whilst character limitations have bugged some (yes, I do find the structure of the plans a little weird, many people here on AppSumo are solopreneurs and don't necessarily need or want lots of additional team members), I went straight for tier 3 and it seems adequate for now. I've read a couple of comments about being students and not being able to afford the higher tiers... if you are a student, my honest opinion is grab tier 1 if you think it'll provide value to you, but GitHub Co-pilot will be free to you, so lean on that as your primary tool, and this as a supplementary tool only if the need arises.
Shreyans_AskJarvis
May 9, 2024Thank you so much for the review! We're glad to hear that you think AskJarvis is worth a try, and we're also happy that you see it as a promising alternative to other products on the market. We're looking forward to seeing how our product evolves as well.
We are working on improving the IDE plugin and adding more functionality, but we wanted to make sure that people could get started using AskJarvis immediately. We hope you'll continue using AskJarvis as we add new features—we think you'll find that it's a great tool for your team to use.
We know that not every suggestion will be a Mozart-level masterpiece, but we want each one to be as good as it can be. We are always working to improve the quality of our code suggestions and we hope that you will continue to give us feedback so that we can continue to make them better.
We appreciate your feedback on this because we value our community's input—it helps us make better products for everyone.