DeepSeek vs. Llama 3: Best Local LLM for Coding in 2026?

The Privacy Revolution: Coding Offline

Why pay OpenAI $20/month when you can run a genius-level coder on your own laptop? In 2026, the battle for the best "Local LLM" is between the open-source hero Llama 3 and the coding specialist DeepSeek.

We ran them both through the "HumanEval" python benchmark. Here is the breakdown.

1. DeepSeek-Coder-V2

The Specialist. DeepSeek was trained specifically on massive repositories of GitHub code.

• Pros: It understands complex dependencies. If you ask it to "Build a React App with Tailwind," it remembers to update the package.json file.
• Cons: It can be dry and robotic in conversation.
• Best For: Pure software engineering and debugging.

2. Meta Llama 3 (8B & 70B)

The Generalist. Llama 3 is the best "all-rounder."

• Pros: It can explain why your code is broken in plain English. It is better at writing documentation and comments.
• Cons: It sometimes hallucinates libraries that don't exist.
• Best For: Learning to code and writing documentation.

3. The Hardware Test (MacBook M3 Max)

Verdict: Which One to Install?

If you are using VS Code with the "Continue.dev" extension (Copilot alternative):

• Use DeepSeek for the autocomplete. It is more accurate with syntax.
• Use Llama 3 for the chat window to ask questions about logic.

Pro Tip: Use Ollama to switch between them instantly. Command: ollama run deepseek-coder.