Amp vs Kaku (2026): Which Vibe Coding App Is Better?

Both are popular terminal coding agents. Here is how Amp and Kaku stack up on price, strengths and weaknesses, and which one we would pick.

Amp

Frontier coding agent for the terminal and editor, from the makers of Sourcegraph

8.2 /10

Pricing: Free plan, paid from $20/mo

Pros

Strong results on hard, multi-step tasks
Shared threads for team review
Subagents and AGENTS.md built in

Cons

Usage-based costs add up on large tasks
Fewer configuration knobs by design

Visit Amp ↗

Kaku

Zero-config macOS terminal built on WezTerm for running AI coding CLIs

7.5 /10

Pricing: Free

Pros

Popular and active: ~6k GitHub stars, 1,660+ commits, MIT licensed
Ships with sensible zero-config defaults, fonts, themes and shell integration tuned for running AI coding CLIs
Built-in glue for a real workflow: pane/tab management plus Lazygit and Yazi integration alongside AI chat/command-suggestion shortcuts

Cons

macOS only
It's a terminal host, not an agent itself — you still bring your own AI CLI (Claude Code, Gemini, Copilot, Kimi Code) and API keys

Visit Kaku ↗

Amp vs Kaku at a glance

	Amp	Kaku
Editor score	8.2 / 10	7.5 / 10
Pricing model	Freemium	Free
Starting price	$20/mo	Free
Reader upvotes	0	0
Best for	terminal, agent	terminal, macos, wezterm
Agent Skills support	Yes	No
Subagents support	Yes	No
MCP support	Yes	No
AGENTS.md support	Yes	No
Plugins support	Yes	No
Hooks support	No	No
Rules support	No	No
Agent skills in this directory	47	0
Subagents & agents in this directory	9	3
MCP servers in this directory	72	0

Our pick

Amp edges it with a score of 8.2 versus 7.5. Amp is the better fit if you value: strong results on hard, multi-step tasks, shared threads for team review. Choose Kaku instead if you need: popular and active: ~6k github stars, 1,660+ commits, mit licensed, ships with sensible zero-config defaults, fonts, themes and shell integration tuned for running ai coding clis.