Bill & Ben vs GitHub Copilot coding agent: Teams and plans
The GitHub Copilot coding agent works inside GitHub and hands back pull requests. Bill & Ben work in Microsoft Teams: Bill plans with you, Ben builds in a sealed workspace and opens a draft pull request. If all your work lives in GitHub, GitHub's agent is the closer fit.
Last checked
Side by side
| Topic | Bill & Ben | GitHub Copilot coding agent |
|---|---|---|
| Where you ask | Write to Bill in a Teams chat or say it in a meeting. No new app to learn. | On GitHub.com and GitHub Mobile, from a chat, from a file, issue or pull request, or by assigning code scanning alerts for fixes.Source: docs.github.com, read |
| Plans and tasks | Bill turns your idea into a clear plan. Ben does the engineering. | Copilot can research a repository, plan changes and implement them in the background. You can review proposed changes and ask for refinements before a pull request is created.Source: docs.github.com, read |
| Meetings | Ask Bill or Ben to join a Teams meeting. | Meetings are not part of the feature as GitHub describes it on that page.Source: docs.github.com, read |
| Where code runs | By default Ben works in a sealed workspace. You can also send work to your own computer. | In a cloud sandbox, on a GitHub Actions runner or in a remote custom environment. Actions sessions are limited to one repository and 59 minutes; self-hosted runners are supported there.Source: docs.github.com, read |
| Result and review | Ben opens a branch, runs the tests and prepares a pull request. The result comes back to your chat. | Copilot works on one branch at a time and opens one pull request per task. GitHub says session logs do not replace your own review and testing.Source: docs.github.com, read |
| Limits and admin controls | Pushing code, writing to work items or editing the wiki waits for a person’s yes. | Rulesets or branch protection rules can stop Copilot from creating or updating pull requests. Repository owners and administrators can disable Copilot for a repository, and organization and enterprise policies apply.Source: docs.github.com, read |
| Model choice | Leading models from several labs, including Anthropic, OpenAI and Google. Your admin can switch off any provider. | You can change the model. Which models you see depends on your plan and account policies.Source: docs.github.com, read |
| Data kept | You set how long each kind of data is kept. | Chat data is kept for 28 days in GitHub Actions sessions and for the life of the account in cloud sandboxes.Source: docs.github.com, read |
When GitHub Copilot coding agent is the better choice
- All your work is code in repositories on GitHub and you want an agent inside GitHub itself, with branch protection and rulesets deciding what it may change.
- You want the work to run on your own GitHub Actions runners, including self-hosted ones, which GitHub's Actions environment supports.
Sources
Last checked . Product pages change, so check the vendor before you decide.
- https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/using-github-copilot/coding-agent/about-assigning-tasks-to-copilot, read
- https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/agents/coding-agent/about-coding-agent, read
More comparisons
GitHub and GitHub Copilot are trademarks of their owners. We use the names only to say which product is meant. Bill & Ben is not affiliated with or endorsed by GitHub.
Try it with your team
Start free. Pick a plan when you are ready.