Claude Code vs Codex vs OpenCode: The Honest Verdict for Full-Stack Engineers
I tested all three on real full-stack work: a Next.js feature, a backend API bug, a legacy refactor, and a test-writing marathon. Here's the one I'd actually use, and when.
For years, "AI in my editor" meant autocomplete guessing the end of my line. Useful, occasionally uncanny, but fundamentally a fancier tab key. That era is over. The tools I'm comparing here don't finish your line. They read your repo, edit files across the tree, run your test suite, read the failure, and try again. On a good day, working with one feels less like using a tool and more like pairing with a competent junior-to-mid engineer who never gets tired and never complains about your naming conventions.
That's also why picking one matters. A collaborator you hand real work to should be judged on how it behaves inside a messy, real-world codebase, not on a benchmark screenshot. So I...
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