Engineering intelligence platforms: 10 compared by price, data and fit
An engineering intelligence platform pulls data from your Git host, issue tracker, CI and AI coding tools and turns it into delivery metrics: cycle time, DORA, where engineering time goes and what AI tools cost. Search results name Jellyfish, DX, LinearB and Swarmia most often; Swarmia is free under 10 developers. Six of the ten below publish prices; Jellyfish, DX, Faros and Waydev sell by quote.
Disclosure: this site is published by Winding AI, Inc., the company that makes Zest, one of the ten platforms below. Zest is listed with its gaps, and the page says where a rival is better or cheaper. No vendor paid to be here and there are no affiliate links.
Quick picks by need
- Teams under 10 engineersSwarmia: free for up to 9 developers, with DORA and delivery metrics.
- Developer surveys and benchmarksDX: surveys, benchmarks and system data in one place.
- Finance reportingJellyfish: software capitalization and R&D tax credit reports.
- Pull request automationLinearB: gitStream routing, approvals and AI code review.
- AI token spend and model policyFaros: spend per team and model, routing and guardrails.
- Self-hosting, Gerrit, Azure DevOpsWaydev: self-hosted on Enterprise, five Git hosts.
- Delivery risk with a public priceAllstacks: $400 a contributor a year on Growth.
- Custom metricsPlandek: 500+ configurable metrics, DORA and Flow.
- Low per-developer price with surveysTypo: $20 a developer a month, billed annually.
- Coding-agent sessions on GitHubZest: per-session model, skills and cost, joined to merged PRs.
The comparison
List prices and features as each vendor's own pages showed them on November 7, 2026. "Not listed" means we did not find it on the pages we read, not proof the product lacks it.
| Platform | List price | Free plan or trial | DORA | Dev surveys | Capitalization | Git hosts listed | How it reads AI coding |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swarmia | Standard $45, Enterprise $55 a developer a month; single modules $5 to $23; billed annually | Free up to 9 developers; trial | Yes | Yes | Yes | GitHub, GitLab | Usage and cost per tool and person (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Codex) |
| DX | Quote. AWS Marketplace: $15,000 a year for the platform, $672 per extra active contributor | None listed | Yes | Yes | Yes | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, Gerrit | Connectors for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Devin and more |
| Jellyfish | Quote, by seats and modules. AWS Marketplace: $30,800 a year for the platform and 15 seats | None listed | Yes | Yes | Yes | GitHub, Azure DevOps | Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Codex and five more tools |
| LinearB | Essentials $29 a user a month (50 minimum), Enterprise $59 (100 minimum); annual only | 45-day trial | Yes | Yes | Enterprise plan | GitHub Cloud on Essentials; GitLab, Bitbucket Cloud, Azure DevOps on Enterprise | AI tool integrations; AI code reviews |
| Faros | Quote, consumption-based | Faros Desktop free for individuals | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps | Token spend per team, model and task across Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot |
| Waydev | Custom quote on every plan; billed annually | Free proof of concept; 90-day money-back | Yes | Yes | Yes | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, Gerrit | AI adoption, impact and ROI on Premium and Enterprise |
| Allstacks | Growth $400, Enterprise $600 a contributor a year (100 minimum) | Proof of concept through sales | Yes | Not listed | Yes | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps | Claude and Copilot integrations |
| Plandek | $25 to $55 a contributor a month, by contract length and volume | Free one-off AI Impact Report | Yes | Yes | Not listed | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps | AI adoption and impact reporting |
| Typo | Starter $20, Pro $28 a developer a month billed annually; monthly option | 14-day trial, no card | Yes | Yes | Enterprise plan | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps | Cursor, Copilot and Claude Code integrations |
| Zest | Pro $49 a month for 5 seats, Max $149 for 10; extra seats $19; per workspace, monthly | Free Starter, 3 seats, no card | No | No | No | GitHub only | A plugin inside each coding agent: model, tokens, skills and tool calls per session, joined to merged PRs |
What 25 engineers would pay
Monthly list price for a 25-engineer team at each vendor's cheapest published plan that fits, before discounts. Quote-only vendors are shown with the public reference points they offer.
| Platform | 25 engineers, a month | How it adds up |
|---|---|---|
| Swarmia | $125 / $1,125 | AI adoption & cost module at $5; Standard at $45; billed annually |
| Zest | $429 | Pro $49 with 5 seats, plus 20 seats at $19; billed monthly |
| Typo | $500 | Starter at $20, billed annually |
| Plandek | $625 to $1,375 | $25 to $55 a contributor |
| Allstacks | about $833 | Growth at $400 a contributor a year ($10,000 a year) |
| DX | from $1,250 | AWS listing: $15,000 a year for the platform; extra contributors $672 each |
| LinearB | $1,450 | Essentials (GitHub Cloud only) bills at least 50 users at $29 ($17,400 a year) |
| Jellyfish | Quote | The AWS bundle is $30,800 a year for 15 seats (about $2,567 a month) |
| Faros | Quote | Consumption-based |
| Waydev | Quote | Custom quote on Pro, Premium and Enterprise |
Swarmia's AI module is the cheapest way here to see AI tool use and cost per person, and its free plan beats every paid plan for teams under 10. LinearB's 50-user floor means a 25-person team pays for 50.
How to choose
1. Name the question first
Delivery speed and stability: DORA and cycle time, which most of the list covers. Developer experience: surveys (DX, Jellyfish, Swarmia, LinearB, Waydev, Typo, Plandek). Finance: capitalization (Jellyfish, Allstacks, Swarmia, Waydev, LinearB Enterprise). AI use and spend: Faros, Swarmia's module, Zest.
2. Check your Git host
On GitHub, all ten work. On GitLab, drop Zest and LinearB Essentials, and ask Jellyfish, whose integrations page does not name GitLab. On Bitbucket or Azure DevOps, look at DX, Waydev, Plandek, Typo, Faros, Allstacks or LinearB Enterprise. On Gerrit, only DX and Waydev list it.
3. Count heads against minimums
LinearB bills at least 50 users (100 on Enterprise), Allstacks Enterprise needs 100 contributors, and Jellyfish's public bundle starts at 15 seats. Swarmia is free below 10 developers.
4. Ask how it reads AI coding
Admin APIs and OpenTelemetry report seats, usage and spend. Git signals estimate which code an agent wrote. A plugin inside the agent sees each session. Each method misses something; ask which one a vendor uses.
5. Read the contract terms
LinearB, Allstacks and Waydev bill annually. Zest bills monthly; Typo and Swarmia offer monthly billing too. Trials range from 14 days (Typo) to 45 (LinearB).
6. Run a two-week trial on real repos
Connect one team, check that the numbers match what the team knows happened, and ask engineers whether the dashboards help them or just watch them.
The platforms, one by one
Swarmia Best for teams under 10
Delivery metrics, DORA, working agreements, surveys and capitalization, sold as Standard ($45 a developer a month) or as single modules: AI adoption & cost $5, surveys $9, capitalization $18, productivity & AI impact $23. Free for companies with up to 9 developers. Git hosts: GitHub and GitLab.
DX Best for surveys and benchmarks
Built around developer experience research: the DX Core 4 framework, the Developer Experience Index, surveys and experience sampling, alongside SDLC analytics, AI measurement and R&D capitalization. Connectors include Gerrit and Bitbucket Data Center. Quote only; the AWS listing starts at $15,000 a year. Atlassian announced it would acquire DX in September 2025.
Jellyfish Best for finance reporting
Modules for AI impact, developer productivity (DORA, SPACE, DevEx surveys) and DevFinOps (software capitalization, R&D tax credits, audit-ready reports). Priced by seats and modules through sales; the one public bundle, on AWS Marketplace, is $30,800 a year for 15 engineering seats.
LinearB Best for PR automation
DORA and delivery metrics, developer surveys, capitalization reports, plus gitStream workflow automation and AI code reviews that act on pull requests. Essentials is $29 a user a month with a 50-user minimum, billed annually only, and connects GitHub Cloud only; GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps and capitalization reports need Enterprise ($59, 100-user minimum). A 45-day trial needs no payment method.
Faros Best for AI spend governance
Formerly Faros AI, now a "token engineering" platform: it ties AI coding spend to merged work, routes tasks to models based on evaluations of your own code, and enforces model and budget policies. 100+ connectors. Consumption-based pricing by quote; Faros Desktop is free for individual developers.
Waydev Best for self-hosting
DORA, SPACE, surveys, cost capitalization and, on Premium, AI adoption, impact and ROI. Connects GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps and Gerrit, and Enterprise can run self-hosted. The pricing page now shows a custom quote on every plan, with a free proof of concept and a 90-day money-back guarantee.
Allstacks Best for delivery risk
Agents read Jira, Git and CI data to flag delivery risks and suggest next steps, with DORA, SPACE and Flow metrics. Growth is $400 a contributor a year (up to 500); Enterprise $600 (minimum 100). Cost capitalization is $200 a contributor a year on its own.
Plandek Best for custom metrics
More than 500 configurable delivery metrics including DORA, SPACE and Flow, surveys, and an AI assistant in Slack. $25 to $55 a contributor a month depending on contract length and seat count. Start with a free one-off AI Impact Report.
Typo Best low published price
DORA, PR cycle time, code health, automated surveys and AI-tool integrations for Cursor, Copilot and Claude Code. Starter $20 and Pro $28 a developer a month billed annually, with a monthly option; capitalization reporting is on Enterprise. 14-day trial, no card.
Where Zest fits, and where it doesn't
Zest Best for coding-agent sessions on GitHub
Zest is narrower than the platforms above. A plugin or extension in Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot Chat), Codex, Hermes, Grok Build, OpenCode and Freebuff reports each session: model, tokens, skills and tool calls, with secrets redacted on the engineer's machine and no code diffs collected. A read-only GitHub App adds pull requests, so Zest can show which sessions ended in merged PRs and what they cost.
Where it is the better pick: you want to see how each engineer's coding agents get used, not just seat counts; you also run less common agents such as Hermes, OpenCode or Freebuff, which Zest has plugins for; you are on GitHub and want a monthly plan with a published price ($49 for 5 seats, $429 a month for 25) instead of an annual contract.
Where a rival is better: no DORA metrics (Swarmia, LinearB or Typo), no developer surveys (DX), no capitalization (Jellyfish or Allstacks), no issue-tracker or delivery-risk view (Allstacks, Plandek), and no GitLab, Bitbucket or Azure DevOps (Waydev or DX). For AI tool cost per person alone, Swarmia's $5 module is cheaper, and free under 10 developers.
Questions
What is an engineering intelligence platform?
Software that connects to your Git host, issue tracker, CI and AI coding tools and reports how engineering work gets delivered: cycle time, throughput, DORA metrics, where time goes and, more and more, what AI tools cost and change. Vendors also call it software engineering intelligence (SEI); LinearB cites Gartner's name, Developer Productivity Insight Platforms.
How much does an engineering intelligence platform cost per developer?
Published list prices on November 7, 2026 ran from $20 a developer a month (Typo Starter) to $55 (Swarmia Enterprise), with Allstacks at $400 to $600 a contributor a year. Jellyfish, DX, Faros and Waydev sell by quote; Jellyfish's AWS Marketplace bundle is $30,800 a year for 15 seats and DX's starts at $15,000 a year. Zest charges per workspace: $49 a month for 5 seats.
Which engineering intelligence platform is free?
Swarmia is free for companies with up to 9 developers. Zest's Starter plan is free for 3 seats. Faros Desktop is free for individual developers, and Plandek offers a free one-off AI Impact Report. LinearB has a 45-day trial and Typo a 14-day trial.
Which platforms track Claude Code, Cursor and GitHub Copilot?
All ten say they report on AI coding tools, but they read different data. Most connect to each tool's admin API or OpenTelemetry feed, which gives seats, usage and spend. Zest runs as a plugin inside each coding agent, so it sees each session's model, tokens, skills and tool calls, and it only supports GitHub.
Which engineering intelligence platforms work with GitLab, Bitbucket or Azure DevOps?
DX and Waydev list GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps and Gerrit. Plandek, Typo, Faros and Allstacks list GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket and Azure DevOps, and so does LinearB on Enterprise (Essentials connects GitHub Cloud only). Swarmia lists GitHub and GitLab. Jellyfish's integrations page lists GitHub and Azure DevOps. Zest works with GitHub only.
Should an engineering intelligence platform rank individual engineers?
Use it for teams and systems, not to rank people. Commits, lines of code and AI usage per person are easy to game and say little about value. Look at team-level flow, review wait times and where work gets stuck, and ask engineers what slows them down.
Do I need DORA metrics and developer surveys?
If you report delivery performance to leadership, yes: DORA metrics are the common language, and surveys catch friction that system data misses. Swarmia, LinearB, Waydev, Typo, Plandek, Jellyfish and DX offer both. If your question is only how coding agents get used and what they cost, a narrower tool such as Zest or Swarmia's AI module may be enough.
About this page
Published by Winding AI, Inc., the company that makes Zest. We built it to put this category's list prices, dated and sourced, on one page. Eight of the other nine are platforms that search results and AI answers name for this category; we added Faros because it now focuses on AI coding spend. Zest is the tenth.
How we checked: every price and feature above was read on the vendor's own website, pricing page, documentation or AWS Marketplace listing on November 7, 2026, and each platform's section links its pages. We give no star ratings or scores and invent no reviews. Prices change; if you find one out of date, write to support@winding.ai and we will fix it.