For about 8 months, I’ve been solo-developing an advanced SaaS project called Shubhq.com. It’s a centralized growth platform where SaaS and e-commerce teams systematize organic growth through data, collaboration, and actionable insights. Throughout this journey, I’ve fully adopted the "Vibe Coding" philosophy.
In fact, starting out at the age of 27 as an ActionScript developer with eight years of experience at an e-learning company helped me significantly throughout the process, even though I wasn’t fully fluent in the programming language I was working with. During these eight months of development, I closely followed the evolution of AI language models on the coding side.
In this content based on what I’ve personally experienced and would also recommend. I want to explain the AI language models and IDE code editors that can help you reach results in the fastest and most reliable way, without exhausting you, even if you’re not fully proficient in the programming language you’re working with, while still building a sustainable and properly functioning project.
As someone with over 20 years of experience in the WordPress ecosystem—specializing in SEO infrastructure and plugin development—I initially planned to build on WordPress. However, 4 months in, I pivoted toward a ground-up SaaS architecture. I scrapped the custom plugin system I was building and re-architected everything. Over these 8 months, I’ve spent more than 1,200 hours using IDEs like Windsurf, Cursor, and Kiro.dev, testing numerous AI models. If you’re building a large project, I’m sure you’ve experimented with these tools too. Based on my 1,200-hour experience, I want to share the best AI models for coding.
The Best AI Models for Coding with Vibe Coding
Claude Opus 4.5 (Thinking)
The King of Reasoning In 2025, while Gemini 3 Pro became the most used model due to its general performance, it still hasn't beaten Claude Opus 4.5 in coding.
Claude Opus 4.5: Leads the SWE‑bench Verified at 80.9%.
Gemini 3 Pro: Strong at 76%, but still behind.
To me, Claude Opus 4.5 (Thinking) is miles ahead of both Gemini 3 Pro and the standard Opus 4.5. It rarely fails, doesn't get confused, and handles long-chain reasoning flawlessly. It even adds its own creative improvements to repetitive tasks. It is currently the most flawless model available. Interestingly, it’s not on Kiro.dev despite that platform being Claude-centric. While it's expensive (5x credits on Windsurf), it is my most-used model because of its reliability.
Claude Sonnet 4.5
At 2x tokens, it’s the best choice for simpler tasks. Claude Sonnet 4.5 is another model I’ve used extensively for a long time. When we look at the early days of 2026, Claude Opus 4.5 is better overall, but it’s also about twice as expensive. Claude Sonnet 4.5 is not 50% worse than the Opus version. Gemini 3 Pro could also be a viable option, but there isn’t a huge performance gap between them. In fact, I can confidently say that Claude Sonnet 4.5 is a more stable AI model that makes fewer errors.
Gemini 3 Pro (High)
A solid runner-up at 2x tokens, but it frequently throws errors and limits long sessions. Gemini 2.5 Pro, on the other hand, is one of the worst for coding. When Gemini Pro 3 was first released, I can say it delivered surprisingly strong and useful performance. I even went through an intense one-week period where I used it interchangeably with Claude Sonnet 4.5. Whenever one model got confused, I switched to the other—until Claude Opus 4.5 (Thinking) was released.
I’ve tried using Gemini Pro 3 a few more times recently, but every attempt resulted in issues—either technical errors or performance problems where it failed to actually solve the problem. In my view, Gemini Pro 3 is one of those models that had a great start but couldn’t sustain it.
Penguin Alpha
A "stealth" model in Windsurf that is definitely better than SWE-1.5. It's the best alternative when you want to save your Thinking tokens.
GPT-5.2 High Reasoning
Ambitious at 6x tokens with great reasoning, but not as fast or "trustworthy" as Claude.
These models look like the top choices for Vibe Coding as we enter Q1 2026. I can't wait to evaluate even more stable models next spring. Best regards.