Kiro vs Onlook (2026): Which Vibe Coding App Is Better?

Both are popular AI code editors. Here is how Kiro and Onlook stack up on price, strengths and weaknesses, and which one we would pick.

Kiro

Spec-driven agentic IDE: requirements, design and tasks before code

8.1 /10

Pricing: Free plan, paid from $20/mo

Pros

Specs keep larger features on track
Agent hooks automate docs and tests
Generous student and startup offers

Cons

Spec workflow feels heavy for small fixes
Credit-based pricing

Visit Kiro ↗

Onlook

Open-source visual editor for styling and editing React + Tailwind apps with AI

6.5 /10

Pricing: Freemium

Pros

Lets designers and developers edit a live React/Tailwind app directly in the rendered DOM, with changes written back to real code instead of a design file
Open source (Apache-2.0) and self-hostable, with a hosted version available if you don't want to run it yourself
Built-in branching for trying design variants, brand/token management, and comment-based collaboration for teams

Cons

Scoped to Next.js + Tailwind projects; not a general-purpose visual editor for other stacks
The public README doesn't name specific coding-agent integrations (e.g. Cursor, Copilot) beyond its own AI chat and MCP support, so agent compatibility is narro

Visit Onlook ↗

Kiro vs Onlook at a glance

	Kiro	Onlook
Editor score	8.1 / 10	6.5 / 10
Pricing model	Freemium	Freemium
Starting price	$20/mo	Free
Reader upvotes	0	0
Best for	editor, aws, spec-driven	design-to-code, react, tailwindcss
Agent Skills support	Yes	No
Subagents support	No	No
MCP support	Yes	Yes
AGENTS.md support	Yes	No
Plugins support	No	No
Hooks support	Yes	No
Rules support	Yes	No
Agent skills in this directory	49	0
Subagents & agents in this directory	6	3
MCP servers in this directory	72	72

Our pick

Kiro edges it with a score of 8.1 versus 6.5. Kiro is the better fit if you value: specs keep larger features on track, agent hooks automate docs and tests. Choose Onlook instead if you need: lets designers and developers edit a live react/tailwind app directly in the rendered dom, with changes written back to real code instead of a design file, open source (apache-2.0) and self-hostable, with a hosted version available if you don't want to run it yourself.