Which Memex alternatives are still actively developed?

Visual Studio Code (newest commit 8 Oct 2026), Claude Code (newest commit 8 Oct 2026). Those dates are the newest commit on each project's default branch, read from the GitHub API on the date shown at the top of this page. We read the default branch rather than the repository's push timestamp, because a push to any branch moves the second one and makes a finished project look active.

What do Memex alternatives cost?

Google Antigravity: Antigravity costs $0 a month for an individual, and the pricing page now labels that tier Generally Available rather than a preview. Visual Studio Code: The editor is free but the agents are not: reaching the Claude Code and Codex harnesses through a Copilot subscription starts at Copilot Pro, $10 per user a month. Claude Code: Claude Pro costs $17 per month on the annual plan, $200 billed up front, or $20 per month billed monthly; Max starts at $100 per month. Prices we have not read ourselves are marked "not verified" in the table above rather than copied from our catalogue, which is out of date on 43 of our 190 rows.

How many Memex alternatives do you track?

We name 13 on this page. 3 carry judgments and prices we read and quoted, 4 carry live repository data with no judgment yet, and 6 are catalogue entries we have not researched. We say which is which on every row rather than presenting all of them as reviewed.

Best Memex alternatives (2026)

Memex is a workflow tool: Desktop-based builder for creating internal tools. We name 13 alternatives below.

Quick answer

Of the 13 alternatives here, 3 have been researched claim by claim. Start with Google Antigravity.

Choose Google Antigravity when: Run Antigravity without leaving Visual Studio Code: Google's own extension puts agent chat, inline diff review and interactive plans into VS Code side panels, and installs a local `agy` backend service the first time you launch it. [antigravity.google/docs/ide]

It costs: Antigravity costs $0 a month for an individual, and the pricing page now labels that tier Generally Available rather than a preview. [antigravity.google/pricing]

How this list is ordered. Tools whose claims we have read and quoted come first, then tools whose repository we track, then catalogue entries we have not researched. Within each band the order is category and workflow overlap. A tool that has stopped is never the first answer. We publish no score out of five: every claim here traces to a source, and a number we could not justify would undermine the ones that can.

3 researched alternatives to Memex

Google Antigravity

antigravity.google

What it is: Google Antigravity is a platform rather than an editor: its IDE extensions put the same agent — side-panel chat, inline diff review and interactive plans — inside the editor you already use, so adopting Antigravity does not require adopting its IDE. [antigravity.google/docs/ide]

Where it hurts: You cannot point Antigravity at a model key you already hold: the plans page states there is no bring-your-own-key or bring-your-own-endpoint path, so the quota Google grants you is your only supply. [antigravity.google/docs/plans]

Price: Antigravity costs $0 a month for an individual, and the pricing page now labels that tier Generally Available rather than a preview. [antigravity.google/pricing]

Antigravity changes week to week and Google reserves the right to move the limits: 2.11.0 shipped on 2026-08-26 and the IDE extensions on 2026-08-20, so read every quota statement here as read on 2026-08-27.

Website: antigravity.google; HTTP 200; Verified 8 Oct 2026

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Visual Studio Code

code.visualstudio.com

What it is: Visual Studio Code is the host, not the agent: one Session Target control switches a session between five harnesses — Local, GitHub Copilot, Anthropic Claude, OpenAI Codex and Cloud — so the editor stays fixed while the agent behind it changes. [code.visualstudio.com/docs/agents]

Choose Visual Studio Code when: Run Anthropic's agent without installing a second product: the Claude harness is enabled by default and bills either through a GitHub Copilot subscription or through your own Anthropic key. [code.visualstudio.com/docs/agents]

Where it hurts: The app you download is not the MIT repository: Microsoft ships Visual Studio Code as a licensed distribution of the open-source Code - OSS tree, and says the product is built on open source rather than being open source. [code.visualstudio.com/docs/supporting]

Price: The editor is free but the agents are not: reaching the Claude Code and Codex harnesses through a Copilot subscription starts at Copilot Pro, $10 per user a month. [github.com/features/copilot]

Stars: 193,660; Verified 8 Oct 2026
Last commit: 8 Oct 2026; 0 days old when we read it; Verified 8 Oct 2026
License: MIT; Verified 8 Oct 2026

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Claude Code

github.com

What it is: Claude Code runs only Anthropic models: every alias — default, best, fable, sonnet, opus, haiku and opusplan — resolves to a Claude model, and changing the base URL moves where the request goes without changing which model answers it. [code.claude.com/docs/en]

Choose Claude Code when: Plan a change with Opus and execute it with Sonnet inside one session, by setting the model to `opusplan`. [code.claude.com/docs/en]

Where it hurts: You cannot audit, fork or patch the agent: the repository publishes the changelog, plugins and examples, not the CLI source, under an all-rights-reserved licence. GitHub Copilot CLI is the only other tool in this set that does the same. [github.com/anthropics/claude-code]

Price: Claude Pro costs $17 per month on the annual plan, $200 billed up front, or $20 per month billed monthly; Max starts at $100 per month. [claude.com/pricing]

Stars: 149,849; Verified 8 Oct 2026
Last commit: 8 Oct 2026; 0 days old when we read it; Verified 8 Oct 2026
Latest stable release: v2.1.294; published 8 Oct 2026; Verified 8 Oct 2026

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Memex alternatives at a glance

Tool	Price	State	Newest commit
Google Antigravity	$0	Not tracked	not tracked
Visual Studio Code	$10	Active	8 Oct 2026
Claude Code	$17 / $200 / $20 / $100	Active	8 Oct 2026
Cursor	not verified	Slowing	12 May 2026
Windsurf	not verified	Not tracked	not tracked
Zed	not verified	Active	8 Oct 2026
GitHub Copilot	not verified	Not tracked	not tracked

Also close, not yet researched

These match Memex by category and workflow, and we have not read their vendor pages. We publish no judgment and no price for them, because we have no source to put beside one.

CursorSlowingAI-powered IDE designed to replace VS Code with predictive editing and project contextRepository tracked
WindsurfAgentic IDE where developers and AI flow together (formerly Codeium)Website checked
ZedHigh-performance code editor designed for collaboration with humans and AIRepository tracked
GitHub CopilotAI pair programmer with code completion chat and agent mode for agentic codingRegistry tracked
PiecesAI-powered code snippet storage with search and long-term memoryCatalogue entry
Repo PromptRepository-wide code generation and editing via AI promptsCatalogue entry
Prompt TowerTool that helps build prompts with many code blocksCatalogue entry
StringAI agent builder for automating workflowsCatalogue entry
AirtableAI-native platform for building internal tools and databasesCatalogue entry
ToolJetLow-code platform for building internal toolsCatalogue entry

Questions people ask

What is the best alternative to Memex?: Google Antigravity is the one we can answer for in full. Run Antigravity without leaving Visual Studio Code: Google's own extension puts agent chat, inline diff review and interactive plans into VS Code side panels, and installs a local `agy` backend service the first time you launch it. Antigravity costs $0 a month for an individual, and the pricing page now labels that tier Generally Available rather than a preview. Every part of that answer is quoted from a page we read; the links are on this page beside each claim.
Which Memex alternatives are still actively developed?: Visual Studio Code (newest commit 8 Oct 2026), Claude Code (newest commit 8 Oct 2026). Those dates are the newest commit on each project's default branch, read from the GitHub API on the date shown at the top of this page. We read the default branch rather than the repository's push timestamp, because a push to any branch moves the second one and makes a finished project look active.
What do Memex alternatives cost?: Google Antigravity: Antigravity costs $0 a month for an individual, and the pricing page now labels that tier Generally Available rather than a preview. Visual Studio Code: The editor is free but the agents are not: reaching the Claude Code and Codex harnesses through a Copilot subscription starts at Copilot Pro, $10 per user a month. Claude Code: Claude Pro costs $17 per month on the annual plan, $200 billed up front, or $20 per month billed monthly; Max starts at $100 per month. Prices we have not read ourselves are marked "not verified" in the table above rather than copied from our catalogue, which is out of date on 43 of our 190 rows.
How many Memex alternatives do you track?: We name 13 on this page. 3 carry judgments and prices we read and quoted, 4 carry live repository data with no judgment yet, and 6 are catalogue entries we have not researched. We say which is which on every row rather than presenting all of them as reviewed.

How we check this page

Stars, licences, the newest commit on each default branch and the latest stable release are read from the GitHub API, and each one shows the day it was last confirmed rather than the day this page was built. Every judgment and every price is quoted from a page we read, and that page is linked beside the claim. Where a link is missing we wrote no claim. We have researched 3 of the 13 tools named here.