Cursor vs Windsurf
Cursor and Windsurf are both AI-first IDEs forked from VS Code. Windsurf, owned by Cognition since July 2025, was renamed Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026, and its Cascade agent was replaced by Devin Local, a Rust rewrite. Cursor is more mature and has the bigger ecosystem. Pro costs $20 per month on both; for teams, Cursor charges $40 per user and Devin Desktop $80 per month plus $40 per developer seat.
Cursor wins for polish, ecosystem and a longer agent track record, and it is cheaper for teams. Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) wins on a more usable free tier. Individual Pro plans cost the same $20 per month.
The tools at a glance
Cursor
by Anysphere
AI-first IDE forked from VS Code with agent mode, multi-file edits, and a model picker.
- Best for
- Engineers who want the most polished AI IDE with the biggest ecosystem.
- Standout
- Agent and Cloud Agents, its own Composer 2.5 model next to a broad model picker, and the largest community of plugins and rules.
- Weakness
- Agent quotas can be tight on big repos; the free tier is more restrictive than Windsurf's.
- Pricing
- Hobby free; Pro $20/mo; Pro Plus $60/mo; Ultra $200/mo; Teams $40/user (Premium $120/user); Enterprise custom
Windsurf
by Cognition
VS Code fork from Cognition (the Devin company), renamed Devin Desktop in June 2026, with Devin Local as its built-in agent.
- Best for
- Devs who want a flow-style agent and a usable free tier.
- Standout
- Devin Local, the Rust rewrite Cognition ships as the successor to Cascade, plus Codeium-derived Tab autocomplete.
- Weakness
- Less polished than Cursor; smaller community, fewer rules/skills shared, and some rough edges in the UI.
- Pricing
- Free; Pro $20/mo; Max $200/mo; Teams $80/mo plus $40 per dev seat; Enterprise custom
Key differences
Maturity
Cursor has been at this longer and shows it — fewer rough edges, snappier UI, better model integration. Windsurf is good but you'll hit small bugs Cursor fixed a year ago. Cursor wins.
Agent UX
Windsurf's Cascade ran as a continuous flow: plan, edit, run and iterate in one stream. Since June 2026 that job belongs to Devin Local, which Cognition rebuilt in Rust as Cascade's successor; independent comparisons of it are still thin. Cursor's Agent is more turn-based and more controllable, and Cloud Agents run the same kind of task on remote machines.
Pricing
Pro has cost $20 per month on both since March 2026, when Windsurf raised Pro from $15, replaced its credit system with daily and weekly quotas and added a $200 per month Max tier. Those plans carried over unchanged when Windsurf became Devin Desktop. Teams is where they now differ: Cursor Teams is $40 per user, while Devin Desktop Teams is $80 per month for the plan plus $40 per developer seat. Cursor also sells Pro Plus at $60 and Ultra at $200 for heavier individual use.
Model choice
Both let you pick among frontier models (GPT-5, Claude Opus, Gemini, plus their own tunings). Cursor usually has new models a beat earlier. Cursor edges this.
Ecosystem
Cursor has a much larger community sharing rules, .cursorrules files, and integrations. Windsurf's ecosystem is smaller but growing. Cursor wins.
Codebase indexing
Both index your repo for retrieval. Windsurf has historically had stronger indexing on large monorepos (a Codeium heritage). Cursor has closed the gap. Roughly tied.
Feature matrix
| Feature | Cursor | Windsurf |
|---|---|---|
| Base IDE | VS Code fork | VS Code fork |
| Tab autocomplete | Yes (Cursor Tab) | Yes (Codeium-derived) |
| Agent mode | Agent, Cloud Agents | Devin Local (replaced Cascade, June 2026) |
| Model choice | GPT-5, Claude, Gemini, others | GPT, Claude, Gemini, in-house |
| Repo indexing | Yes | Yes (strong on large repos) |
| Cheapest paid tier | $20/mo (Pro) | $20/mo (Pro) |
| Team tier | $40/user (Teams) | $80/mo plus $40 per dev seat (Teams) |
| MCP support | Yes | Yes |
| Ecosystem / community | Large | Smaller, growing |
Pick by use case
Working in a large existing repo
Windsurf's repo indexing is historically strong on monorepos, a holdover from Codeium's enterprise roots.
Multi-file refactor with review
Cursor's diff review UI is more refined and faster to iterate on across many files.
Agent mode for whole-task work
Cursor's Agent has the longer public track record on long tasks. Devin Local replaced Cascade in June 2026 and has had little independent testing so far.
Cost-conscious indie / hobbyist
Paid tiers now cost the same ($20 per month Pro on both), so the decider is the free tier: Windsurf Free keeps unlimited Tab autocomplete plus a daily agent quota, which is more usable than Cursor Free.
Switching between LLMs mid-session
Both have model pickers but Cursor usually has new frontier models earlier and the picker feels more first-class.
Following community-shared workflows / rules
There's just more shared .cursorrules and Cursor-specific guides out there. Windsurf's community is smaller.
Trying a flow-style agent that drives shell + edits
Windsurf was built around the "let it run and watch" style with Cascade, and Cognition ships Devin Local as its successor.
Pricing notes
- Oct 8, 2026Windsurf was renamed Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026 and its Cascade agent replaced by Devin Local; summary, tool card, agent comparison and use cases updated. Corrected team pricing (Devin Desktop Teams is $80/mo plus $40 per dev seat, Cursor Teams $40/user, so the plans are no longer identical) and added Cursor Pro Plus, Ultra and Teams Premium. The pricing-change date is now given as March 2026, which is what the first-party source states.
- Aug 27, 2026Corrected pricing: Windsurf Pro rose from $15 to $20/mo on March 19, 2026 (credits replaced by daily and weekly quotas, new $200/mo Max tier), putting it at price parity with Cursor; ownership updated from Codeium to Cognition (acquired July 2025).
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