Glean vs Visual Studio Code (2026): Pricing, Features & Verdict
Visual Studio Code is our pick, scoring 7.7/10 against 7/10 for Glean on our AI Software criteria. Its biggest advantage: higher Cost score (9/10 vs 2/10). Only Visual Studio Code has a free plan.
Last updated: November 2026
Glean
7/10
Glean is an enterprise work AI platform that searches company apps with permission controls, answers questions with citations, and runs agents for large organizations.
Visual Studio Code
7.7/10
Microsoft's free code editor with built-in GitHub Copilot chat, inline suggestions and multi-agent coding sessions, aimed at developers and engineering teams.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 7/10 | 7.7/10 |
| Integration | 10/10 | 9/10 |
| Analytics | 6/10 | 4/10 |
| Customization | 7/10 | 9/10 |
| Ease of Use | 7/10 | 8/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 6/10 |
| Cost | 2/10 | 9/10 |
| Scalability | 9/10 | 7/10 |
| Security | 9/10 | 7/10 |
| Output Quality | 8/10 | 7/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Cheapest paid plan | Contact for pricing | Contact for pricing |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | Contact for pricing | Free VS Code with Copilot Free |
| Features | ||
| AI Agents | ||
| API Access | ||
| Enterprise Controls | ||
| Text Generation | ||
| Chatbots | Not listed | |
| Code Generation | Not listed | |
| Custom Model Training | Not listed | |
| Image Generation | Not listed | |
| Knowledge Base Search | Not listed | |
| Video Generation | Not listed | |
| Workflow Automation | Not listed | |
Glean vs Visual Studio Code cost by team size
| Team size | Glean | Visual Studio Code |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | Contact for pricing | FreeVS Code with Copilot Free |
| 5 users | Contact for pricing | FreeVS Code with Copilot Free |
| 10 users | Contact for pricing | FreeVS Code with Copilot Free |
| 25 users | Contact for pricing | FreeVS Code with Copilot Free |
| 50 users | Contact for pricing | FreeVS Code with Copilot Free |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Who Glean and Visual Studio Code suit
Glean fits enterprise better; Visual Studio Code fits freelancers, startups and developers better.
| Audience | Glean | Visual Studio Code |
|---|---|---|
| Freelancers | 1/10Reported minimums of about 100 seats rule out solo users. | 8/10Free editor with bring-your-own-key and local model options keeps costs low for solo developers. |
| Startups | 2/10There is no self-serve or free plan, and minimum seat counts are reported at around 100. | 8/10The editor is free and Copilot Free gives small teams AI help without upfront cost. |
| Developers | 6/10It offers Client and Indexing APIs, a Web SDK, agent toolkits and an MCP server. | 10/10It is a code editor built for developers, and its AI features cover writing, editing and testing code. |
| Enterprise | 10/10Contract minimums of about 100 seats, permission-aware search and broad compliance certifications all target large organizations. | 7/10Enterprise AI policies and GitHub Enterprise sign-in support governed rollouts, but advanced controls depend on Copilot Business or Enterprise. |
| Consultancies | 7/10Glean promotes consulting as an industry solution, and knowledge-heavy firms benefit from searching across many apps. | Not rated |
| Government | 5/10Its TX-RAMP Level 2 certification supports public sector buyers in Texas. | Not rated |
| Healthcare | 5/10HIPAA appears among its security certifications. | Not rated |
| IT Teams | 7/10Permission-aware search and enterprise controls fit IT teams, though setup takes significant IT work. | Not rated |
| Mid-Market | 6/10Larger mid-market firms can clear the reported minimum contract of 50,000 to 60,000 dollars, but the cost is steep at this size. | Not rated |
| Remote Teams | 6/10One search across Slack, Drive and other apps helps distributed teams find information. | Not rated |
| SaaS Companies | Not rated | 8/10Tight GitHub integration with issues, pull requests and Actions fits product engineering teams. |
| Small Business | 2/10Reviewers say minimum contracts and opaque pricing make Glean a poor fit for small budgets. | Not rated |
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose Glean
- Higher Analytics score (6/10 vs 4/10)
- Higher Scalability score (9/10 vs 7/10)
- Better fit for enterprise (10/10 vs 7/10)
Why choose Visual Studio Code
- Has a free plan (Glean does not)
- Higher Cost score (9/10 vs 2/10)
- Higher Customization score (9/10 vs 7/10)
- Better fit for freelancers (8/10 vs 1/10)
- Better fit for startups (8/10 vs 2/10)
Pros & Cons
Glean
Pros
- Glean lists more than 275 connected apps, so employees can search Slack, Drive, Jira, Salesforce and other tools from one place.
- Search results follow each source system's access controls, which lowers the risk of exposing data to the wrong people.
- AI answers include citations that link back to the source documents, so users can check them.
- Developers get Client and Indexing APIs, a Web SDK, agent toolkits and an MCP server for building on Glean.
- Its compliance certifications include SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 42001 and HIPAA.
Cons
- Glean publishes no prices; third-party reports put seats at about 50 dollars or more per user per month with minimums of roughly 100 seats.
- There is no free trial, and some reports describe proofs of concept as paid.
- Setup, permission configuration and relevance tuning take significant work from IT teams.
- Reviewers report renewal increases of about 3 to 12 percent a year and possible extra fees for premium support.
- Some users report answers that do not fully match the source data, and say the ranking is hard to customize.
Visual Studio Code
Pros
- The editor is free, and signing in with GitHub automatically enrolls you in Copilot Free, so you can try AI coding at no cost.
- You can choose the agent harness (Copilot, Claude or Codex), bring your own API key or use a local model.
- MCP servers, custom agents, skills, hooks and prompt files let teams shape how the agents behave.
- An independent test found strong GitHub integration: the agent read an issue and fixed a race condition on the first attempt.
- Administrators can restrict agents, models and tools on managed devices through enterprise AI policies.
Cons
- Agents run commands in the local terminal, so they could run destructive commands if a user approves carelessly.
- A tester found the agent missed cross-package dependencies in repositories with 200 or more files and produced shallow happy-path tests.
- The companion app and parallel worktree sessions were Insiders-only as of May 2026.
- Copilot billing has moved to AI credits and reviewers report conflicting price information, which makes costs hard to predict.
- Bring-your-own-key does not cover inline suggestions, semantic search or embeddings, so a Copilot plan is still needed for those.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Visual Studio Code scores higher on our AI Software criteria: 7.7/10 against 7/10 for Glean. The largest gap is in Cost: 2/10 for Glean and 9/10 for Visual Studio Code.
Visual Studio Code has a free plan; Glean does not list one.
Visual Studio Code is the better fit for freelancers: we rate it 8/10 for them, against 1/10 for Glean.
