GitHub Copilot Review

GitHub Copilot is an AI-powered code completion tool that has revolutionized how developers write code. Powered by OpenAI’s Codex model, it serves as your AI pair programmer, suggesting entire lines or blocks of code as you type.

Key Features

GitHub Copilot has evolved significantly since its launch, now offering a comprehensive suite of features:

• Real-time code suggestions - Context-aware completions as you type
• Multi-language support - Works with JavaScript, Python, TypeScript, Ruby, Go, and 60+ more languages
• Context-aware completions - Understands your entire file and project structure
• Function generation from comments - Describe what you want in plain English
• IDE integration - Native support for VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Neovim, and Visual Studio
• Copilot Chat - Conversational interface for code explanations and refactoring
• Pull request summaries - Automatically generate PR descriptions
• Security vulnerability detection - Identifies potential security issues in suggestions
• Code explanations - Helps understand complex code snippets

Performance

Copilot excels at autocompleting common patterns and generating boilerplate code. In our testing, it was particularly effective for:

• Boilerplate code: Test setup, API endpoints, configuration files
• Common algorithms: Sorting, searching, data transformations
• API integrations: REST calls, database queries, third-party SDKs
• Documentation: Comments, docstrings, README files

The quality varies by language and use case. For well-established languages like Python and JavaScript with abundant training data, suggestions are excellent. For newer or niche languages, results can be more hit-or-miss.

Pricing

GitHub Copilot offers competitive pricing that makes it accessible to most developers:

• Individual: $10/month or $100/year (save $20)
• Business: $19/user/month - Adds policy management and organization-wide settings
• Enterprise: $39/user/month - Includes advanced security and compliance features
• Free for students - Verified students and open-source maintainers get full access at no cost

The individual plan is remarkably affordable considering the productivity boost it provides. Many developers report it pays for itself within the first few hours of use each month.

Best Practices

To get the most out of GitHub Copilot:

1. Write clear comments - Describe what you want the code to do
2. Review all suggestions - Never accept code blindly
3. Use descriptive variable names - Helps Copilot understand context
4. Keep files organized - Better context leads to better suggestions
5. Leverage Copilot Chat - Ask questions about unfamiliar code
6. Configure filters - Block suggestions matching public code if needed

Verdict

GitHub Copilot is an excellent investment for professional developers who write code regularly. The $10/month price point is hard to beat for the time savings and productivity gains it provides. While it’s not perfect and requires vigilant code review, it excels at handling boilerplate and routine coding tasks.

The IDE integration is seamless, and the multi-language support means you can use it across your entire tech stack. Copilot Chat adds significant value by helping explain complex code and suggesting refactorings.

Best for: Professional developers, full-stack engineers, anyone writing significant amounts of code daily.

Skip if: You’re a coding beginner learning fundamentals, work exclusively offline, or have strict data privacy requirements.