Amazon Q Developer
FreemiumCodingCode CompletionNEWAWS AI coding assistant (formerly CodeWhisperer) for code generation, security scanning, and cloud development.
Overview
Amazon Q Developer, formerly known as Amazon CodeWhisperer, is AWS's AI-powered coding assistant designed for building applications on AWS and beyond. It provides real-time code suggestions, security vulnerability scanning, and deep integration with AWS services, making it the natural choice for developers building cloud-native applications on the AWS platform.
Beyond code completion, Amazon Q Developer can transform and modernize entire applications - upgrading Java versions, migrating .NET Framework applications to cross-platform .NET, and converting legacy code to modern architectures. Its /transform capability can handle large-scale code modernization tasks that would take human developers weeks or months. The security scanning feature identifies vulnerabilities in generated and existing code, suggesting targeted remediation.
Amazon Q Developer integrates with VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Visual Studio, the AWS Console, and the command line. The free Individual tier is remarkably generous, offering unlimited code suggestions with no throttling, making it one of the best free AI coding tools available for any developer, not just those working with AWS.
Key Features
- +Unlimited free code suggestions in the Individual tier
- +Security vulnerability scanning with remediation suggestions
- +Application transformation and modernization capabilities
- +Deep integration with AWS services and cloud development
- +Support for 15+ programming languages including Python, Java, TypeScript, and C#
- +Code reference tracking to identify suggestions matching open-source code
- +Command-line integration for terminal-based workflows
- +Enterprise customization trained on internal codebases
Use Cases
Pros & Cons
Pros
- +Generous free tier with unlimited code suggestions
- +Excellent AWS service integration for cloud-native development
- +Built-in security scanning catches vulnerabilities early
- +Application transformation feature for large-scale modernization
- +Code reference tracking for open-source license compliance
Cons
- xAWS-focused suggestions can be less relevant for non-AWS projects
- xLess capable than Copilot or Cursor for general-purpose coding tasks
- xChat and reasoning capabilities lag behind frontier competitors
- xIDE integration is not as polished as GitHub Copilot
Pricing Details
Individual: Free - unlimited code suggestions, security scanning. Professional: $19/user/mo - admin controls, organizational policy management, higher limits.