AI Tool Evaluation Framework

Choosing an AI coding tool is a significant investment of time and money. Most comparisons you find online are shallow feature lists or sponsored reviews. This framework gives you a rigorous, repeatable evaluation process. **The spreadsheet includes:** **25 evaluation dimensions** across six categories: - *Capability* (6): code generation quality, context window size, multi-file awareness, refactoring ability, test generation, debugging accuracy - *Developer Experience* (5): IDE integration, response latency, suggestion acceptance rate, chat UX, CLI access - *Cost* (4): per-seat pricing, API cost per 1M tokens, free tier limits, enterprise pricing transparency - *Privacy & Security* (4): data retention policy, SOC 2 compliance, on-premise option, zero data retention mode - *Integration* (4): CI/CD hooks, API access, MCP support, custom tool definitions - *Team Fit* (2): collaboration features, admin controls **Pre-filled scores for 5 tools** (as of Q1 2026): Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, and Codeium. Each score includes a brief justification note. **Weighted scoring system:** Adjust category weights to match your team's priorities. The framework auto-calculates a composite score. **Evaluation methodology guide:** 4-page PDF explaining how to run a 2-week structured trial, what tasks to use as benchmarks, and how to interpret scores. Available as Google Sheets (copy to your Drive) and Excel `.xlsx`.