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GitHub Copilot vs. IBM watsonx Code Assistant Portfolio

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    GitHub Copilot

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AGitHub Copilot is presented as an AI pair programmer, that plugs into the user's editor. It then turns natural language prompts into code, offers multi-line function suggestions, speeds up test generation, filters out common vulnerable coding patterns, and blocks suggestions matching public code.

    $10

    per month

    IBM watsonx Code Assistant Portfolio

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/AIBM watsonx Code Assistant is a family of domain-specific AI Code Assistants & Agentic IDEs built on IBM Granite foundation models. The product portfolio provides targeted generative code recommendation, refactoring, and application modernization capabilities across enterprise domain environments, including IT automation infrastructure and mainframe enterprise systems. Note: IBM is progressively transitioning its domain-specific watsonx Code Assistant tooling into IBM Bob, a unified agentic…N/A
    Pricing
    GitHub CopilotIBM watsonx Code Assistant Portfolio
    Editions & Modules
    CoPilot for Individuals
    $10
    per month
    CoPilot for Business
    $19
    per month per user
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    GitHub CopilotIBM watsonx Code Assistant Portfolio
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    GitHub CopilotIBM watsonx Code Assistant Portfolio
    Considered Both Products
    GitHub
    No answer on this topic
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    85%
    Would buy again
    11 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    8 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    10 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    92%
    Happy with the feature set
    12 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    89%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    8 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    80%
    Implementation went as expected
    8 Answers
    User Ratings
    GitHub CopilotIBM watsonx Code Assistant Portfolio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.8
    (8 ratings)
    6.5
    (10 ratings)
    Usability
    8.8
    (7 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    GitHub CopilotIBM watsonx Code Assistant Portfolio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    GitHub
    Copilit is fantastic at the following: 1. Solving simple, well-defined problems, such as implementing an algorithm, manipulating a data structure, or string manipulation and regex. 2. Implementing simple APIs that are mainly CRUD in nature, with moderate business logic inside them, which may involve some processing or passing the data through an algorithm. 3. Implementation of well-defined activities, such as implementing a connection to an Oracle DB using Hibernate or JDBC, or implementing boilerplate code for a backend service to listen to Kafka events. It is not that great when it comes to understanding and implementing code in a proprietary DSL. It struggles when implementing a major feature across a complex codebase. I believe developers should also adopt the trust-but-verify paradigm when expecting highly secure or regulated code from GitHub Copilot.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    I would recommend for understanding your Mainframe components not for the GenAI piece involved from just my experience. The explanations were not up to the quality we wanted but its deterministic side provided a lot of value for different members of my team. The visuals would be great. I am not sure where it currently stands
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    GitHub
    • Make code development faster and quicker.
    • Helps write better code standards for projects.
    • Provide the latest functions from the technology.
    • Notifies about the deprecated functions.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    • It can automatically revamp specific parts of the COBOL code and very useful when we want to maintain the existing codebase but improve its structure. I can highlight a block of COBOL code and use Watsonx Assistant to suggest ways to simplify and optimize it.
    • Legacy codes, mostly written in COBOL, are cryptic and difficult to understand. Watsonx Assistant analyzes the code and provides insights into its functionalities and dependencies. A great help when working on older applications where understanding the codebase is crucial.
    • A step-by-step approach to modernize our applications slowly and steadily, so that we can control the process better. I don't have to change everything at once. Instead, I can focus on specific COBOL modules and automatically convert them to Java.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    GitHub
    • The only issue I faced is the context token size, it can be increase.
    • Sometime with agent mode it takes too much time, which can be reduced but I understand it also depends on the complexity of the given task.
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    IBM
    • IDE integration is not always optimal
    • I wish it could it could generate the code of an entire WEB site based on user specifications
    • I with there was a functionality to generate code based on design documents such as Sequence Diagrams, Database Architecture etc.
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    Usability
    GitHub
    I feel that GitHub Copilot's overall usability is good due to its tight integration with Visual Studio and the workspace. However, developers expect greater ease of use, as there is a learning curve to realize productivity gains with the tool fully. I think there is room for improvement in GitHub Copilot's UI integration within Visual Studio.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    GitHub
    It is useful that copilot integrates so well with vscode, which is a very common IDE. I used Tabnine for a little while but it was not that intuitive, and did not seem as helpful as GitHub copilot was. I have enjoyed GitHub copilot a lot, especially the ease of hitting the tab key and seeing quick progress in my tasks.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    Security is very important in the mainframe world. At Watsonx, we work in the trusted Z environment, which has strong security rules, stricter than those of other cloud-based solutions. My domain is primarily mainframe modernization and Watsonx Code Assistant for Z is specifically used to understand and work with COBOL, the language used majorly in mainframe environments, not any general-purpose language that used in various platforms. It understands the nuances of COBOL and Assembler specific to the Z environment, something crucial for my work.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    GitHub
    • Our ROI of the purchase of Copilot was met in less than a day. The timesave cannot be overstated
    • Programmer boredom/dissatisfaction is down because of less repetetive crud work.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    • While manual review and adjustments are still needed, it's a 50-70% reduction in manual coding. Think about it - a project estimated to take a year is done in 4-6 months.
    • We've been able to introduce new features and improvements more quickly by updating our technology faster. One relevant example is we recently released an important update to our main product 45 days earlier than planned.
    • It has been a smart move and it's really paid off for our company. We've cut down a lot of time we used to spend doing things manually. We now spend our resources more wisely, work faster and finish projects sooner and as a result, we've reduced our development costs by 25%.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    IBM watsonx Code Assistant Portfolio Screenshots

    Screenshot of Flexibility to deploy large language model either on-premises or as-a-service