Codewhale vs. IBM Bob

Feature	Codewhale	IBM Bob

Tagline	Community-driven coding agent that runs a different model per role	Your AI SDLC (Software Development Lifecycle) partner from IBM
Website	https://codewhale.net/	https://bob.ibm.com
Language	rust	javascript
Release Date	January 19, 2026	September 2, 2025
Last Updated	September 4, 2026	September 4, 2026
Provider Type	Independent	AI Lab
MCP Support	Yes	Yes
Multi-Agent Support	Yes	Yes
Git Integration	deep	deep
Multi-File Editing	Yes	Yes
Auto Test Running	Yes	Yes
Sandbox / Permissions	Yes	Yes
Image / Multimodal Input	Yes	Yes
Voice Mode	Yes	No
IDE Integration	Editors via ACP (registry submission pending)	Bob IDE
Hooks / Extensions	Yes	Yes
Web Search	Yes	Yes
Local Model Support	Yes	No
Context Window	Model-dependent	Model-dependent
Supported Models	30+ providers: DeepSeek, Claude, GPT, Kimi, GLM, Qwen, Grok, Mistral, Xiaomi MiMo, Alibaba Model Studio, SiliconFlow, OpenCode Zen, Hugging Face; local via vLLM, SGLang, Ollama	Multi-provider (IBM-managed)
Supported Subscriptions	ChatGPT SuperGrok	—
Pricing Model	Free, BYOK	Freemium
Free Tier	Yes	Yes
Price Range	Free (BYOK)	Free / $20-200/mo
Source Code Availability	Open Source (MIT)	Proprietary Software
Source Code	https://github.com/Hmbown/CodeWhale	https://github.com/IBM/ibm-bob
Development State	active	active