AI Coding Tools Compared: ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Cursor, Lovable and AI Agents
We compare AI coding tools by asking them to help build the same small app: Snake in React. The session is a comparison, not a single production build, so the walkthrough follows the tool categories: chat applications, coding assistants and IDEs, project bootstrappers, and agents. ## Links The main resources: - [Lovable Snake preview](https://preview--hungry-hissing-haven.lovable.app/) - [AI Dev Tools Zoomcamp](https://github.com/DataTalksClub/ai-dev-tools-zoomcamp) - [AI Engineering Buildcamp](https://maven.com/alexey-grigorev/from-rag-to-agents) - [RAG agents workshop](https://github.com/alexeygrigorev/rag-agents-workshop) - [LLM Zoomcamp](https://github.com/DataTalksClub/llm-zoomcamp) ## The comparison The same app appears in several workflows: ```mermaid flowchart LR PROMPT["Prompt<br/>implement snake in react"] CHAT["Chat apps<br/>ChatGPT, Claude, DeepSeek, Ernie, Microsoft Copilot"] IDE["Coding assistants and IDEs<br/>Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Pear"] BOOT["Project bootstrappers<br/>Bolt, Lovable"] AGENTS["Agents<br/>tools, file access, computer use"] CHATAPP["Local app<br/>snake-chatgpt"] CLAUDEAPP["Local app<br/>snake-claude-code"] PREVIEW["Hosted app<br/>Lovable preview"] PROMPT --> CHAT CHAT --> CHATAPP IDE --> CLAUDEAPP BOOT --> PREVIEW AGENTS --> IDE AGENTS --> BOOT ``` The workshop code includes two Vite React projects. `snake-chatgpt` keeps the game in one component and is useful for seeing what a chat app can produce from a short prompt. `snake-claude-code` splits the page shell from the game component, adds score, start and restart flow, `WASD` controls, and a walls versus pass-through mode.