The best AI for coding in 2025 (and what not to use – including DeepSeek R1) [Video]

I’ve been around technology long enough that very little excites me, and even less surprises me. But shortly after Open AI’s ChatGPT released, I asked it to write a WordPress plugin for my wife’s e-commerce site. When it did, and the plugin worked, I was indeed surprised.

That was the beginning of my deep exploration into chatbots and AI-assisted programming. Since then, I’ve subjected 14 large language models (LLMs) to four real-world tests.

Also: The five biggest mistakes people make when prompting an AI

Unfortunately, not all chatbots can code alike. It’s been almost two years since that first test, and even now, five of the 14 LLMs I tested can’t create working plugins.

In this article, I’ll show you how each LLM performed against my tests. There are two chatbots I recommend you use, but they cost $20 per month. The free versions of the same chatbots do well enough that you could probably get …