Claude Code is losing trust

Decoding Why Users Say Goodbye to Claude Code

Author

Sanket Gawas
September 09, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

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Claude subreddits are in a frenzy these days. Developers are posting screenshots of their Claude Code subscription cancellations. And it's not because of the price, it's due to the trust. Claude's model decline has left seasoned users feeling really frustrated

After analysing 85+ high-engagement posts from subreddits - /ClaudeAI, /ChatGPTCoding, and /ClaudeCode, here is the community's distilled pulse.

claude subreddits are going into a frenzy

What’s the issue?

Top complaints from the Claude-related subreddits:

  1. Model degradation
    - Context drift: Loses track of project goals mid-session
    - Hallucinations: Claude claims tasks are complete when they're not
    - Over-engineering: Adds unnecessary complexity and features
    - Mocked testing: Writes tests that don't actually verify functionality

  2. Yes-man behaviour
    - Responds "You're absolutely right!" before completely changing approach
    - Agrees with suboptimal decisions instead of suggesting better alternatives
    - Lacks critical analysis of user requests
    - Toxic positivity prevents honest feedback

  3. Challenges with speed and reliability
    - 5+ minute wait times for basic edits
    - Frequent context window exhaustion
    - Inconsistent performance across sessions
    - Server load affecting response quality

  4. Pricing challenges
    - $200/month Max plan hits limits quickly
    - API costs would be $3-4k/month for heavy users
    - Arbitrary rate limiting without clear reset times

“Claude is trained to be a "yes-man" instead of an expert - and it's costing me time and money.”

It seems from all of these posts that developers are now spending more time fixing bugs and resolving user complaints than they are using Claude Code to innovate and advance. This cycle of constant feedback and revisions is hindering the overall efficiency of the development process.

So where are users rushing?

70%+ of comparison posts now favour Codex due to Claude’s degraded performance and this is mostly driven by Claude Code’s heavy Max Plan users. Below are the top reasons for their migration to Cldex CLI

  1. Consistency
    - Maintains context throughout long sessions
    - Stable performance across different times/loads
    - No theatrical planning phases

  2. Better code quality 
    - Cleaner, more focused changes
    - Respects existing code patterns
    - Less over-engineering
    - Better test coverage

  3. Cost effectiveness
    – $20 Plus plan sufficient for many use cases
    - $200 Pro plan offers better value than Claude Max
    - Transparent usage limits

“I find codex is better with writing the minimum code required to get the job done”

Uncle Sam noticed this too.

Now I haven't made the switch to Codex yet, but I'm keen to see how it works and compare these again in the coming weeks. Something like I did with Gemini and Cursor against Claude Code

Takeaway

Claude isn’t irrelevant, but the trust gap is widening. Developers are proving they’ll trade feature-rich ecosystems for boring reliability and that’s Codex’s current edge.

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