Cursor vs. Windsurf: Who Takes the Lead After Windsurf’s Pricing Update

AI is advancing across industries, and the IT sector is no exception. New AI tools are being regularly launched into the market with the aim to revolutionize software development, streamline workflows, and improve efficiency. Recent introductions signify the noticeable trend of switching to tools that are no longer just extensions for developers' existing IDEs but rather standalone AI-powered IDEs. 

So, if you are a developer thinking about which tools are worth your attention, the growing number of options can feel overwhelming.  With the recent launch of Windsurf by Codeium, one more full-fledged AI-powered IDE, you might start wondering if you should switch from your Codeium extension to Windsurf or if you should consider Windsurf as a better Cursor's alternative. 

In one of our previous blog posts, we have already discussed the main difference between AI extensions to existing IDEs and standalone IDEs with examples and detailed analysis of the most popular tools in each category. In this blog post, we will focus on a detailed comparison of today's two main competitors, full-fledged AI-driven IDEs Cursor and the recently introduced Windsurf. 

Overview

Cursor is an AI-powered code editor released in March 2023. It is designed as a standalone AI-driven IDE, built on VS Code, offering familiar functionality while enhancing workflows with advanced AI capabilities directly within the coding environment. Cursor provides intelligent code completion, natural language editing, and strong privacy options, making it a compelling tool for developers aiming to streamline coding tasks.

Windsurf is the newest AI-powered IDE from Codeium, officially announced in mid-November 2024. Like Cursor, it is designed as a standalone AI-driven IDE and is a fork of VS Code. While it positions itself as a competitor to already mature platforms like Cursor, it also aims to redefine how developers navigate and interact with code. It introduces an "agentic" approach to AI-assisted coding. Windsurf stands out with its advanced features, such context-aware code and debugging, task automation, and multi-file editing, becoming a significant upgrade from Codeium for developers looking for a fully integrated AI experience.  

Code Completion and Generation

Cursor offers robust code completion and generation capabilities. It predicts and suggests relevant code snippets, functions, and even entire blocks of code, including those based on natural language prompts. Cursor strikes a balance between being a helpful assistant without taking over the coding process completely, making it feel like a seamless extension of the developer's coding skills. Its unique feature is the ability to upload images as part of the prompts, providing additional context for better code suggestions. It is especially useful when diagrams or screenshots are crucial to solving problems. 

Windsurf's Supercomplete feature goes beyond simple code completion. It proactively analyzes potential next steps in the development process and suggests logical progressions, including code completions or even more comprehensive actions. This "agentic" approach, where the AI ​​acts more like a coding partner, contrasts with Cursor's more neutral assistant role. While Windsurf's proactive suggestions can be especially helpful for less experienced developers who need more guidance, this style may require some adjustment from developers who are used to more autonomous workflows. 

Verdict: Both tools excel in code completion and generation but approach it differently.  Cursor focuses on augmenting existing workflows, offering smart code completion and natural language editing, and aims to provide just enough assistance so the developer feels empowered but not controlled. Windsurf's proactive approach provides a more hands-on, "partner-like" experience that might require some adaptation, especially for seasoned developers used to more independence.

Real-time Code Context and Accuracy

Cursor excels in providing context-aware suggestions, often anticipating the developer's next move with impressive accuracy. Its chat feature, accessible via keyboard shortcuts, has proven to be a helpful tool for quick problem-solving. Cursor Composer allows developers to provide high-level instructions for creating entire applications or making complex, multi-file changes. The AI interprets these instructions and generates or modifies the necessary files and code. It also allows for easy external documentation references. It can search the web and use the latest information to answer developers' questions. However, Cursor's Composer often relies on its online knowledge base and may ignore repository-specific context and occasionally bypass the project's structure. 

Windsurf takes contextual awareness to the next level. It has the unique ability to index the entire codebase, which makes it especially suitable for complex projects spanning multiple files and directories. Windsurf's Cascade flow system not only provides accurate, context-based code suggestions but also allows you to debug errors from the terminal, speeding up the workflow. It intelligently extracts relevant code snippets from various parts of the codebase, even if developers haven't specified which files to check. It then uses these as the basis for its code completions and suggestions, meaning the suggestions are always tailored to the repository itself. 

Verdict. Windsurf offers an unmatched experience that is particularly beneficial for complex projects because of its ability to index the entire codebase and integrate contextual suggestions directly within the repo. It offers real-time code context in a way that Cursor's Composer feature can't match.

Speed 

Cursor has earned a solid reputation for being fast and accurate. It makes it suitable for developers who value responsiveness. It generates suggestions very quickly and focuses on matching user intent. This speed can greatly improve efficiency, especially during iterative or time-sensitive development cycles.

Windsurf offers robust AI-powered features, but has been noted to have slower response times than Cursor. It could impact users working under tight deadlines or requiring immediate suggestions. However, its advanced context-aware capabilities may outweigh this drawback for tasks requiring detailed analysis​.

Verdict: Cursor wins when speed and responsiveness are top priorities. Its fast suggestion generation and matching to user intent make it a top choice for developers working on dynamic or iterative projects. Although Windsurf is a bit slower in suggestion generation, it offers excellent context-aware capabilities and advanced debugging.These strengths make it ideal for developers tackling complex tasks or large-scale projects where depth and collaboration matter more than raw speed.

Multi-file Editing and Refactoring

Cursor supports generating and modifying code across multiple files. It is a significant advancement for AI coding tools, improving productivity and streamlining the coding process. While effective for typical use cases, it performs best in straightforward to moderately complex scenarios.

Windsurf stands out with multi-file editing and refactoring, especially for large projects with complex dependencies. Its Windsurf's Cascade flow system offers advanced contextual awareness that allows developers to track and adapt to the ripple effects of changes across the entire codebase. This capability improves the efficiency of large-scale refactoring tasks and positions Windsurf as a reliable choice for developers working with complex, interconnected codebases.

Verdict: Both tools support editing multiple files, but when it comes to dependency management and refactoring, Windsurf wins with its contextual awareness. Cursor is effective for general scenarios but may face challenges in handling large-scale, highly complex environments.

Privacy and Security

Cursor prioritizes code security and has implemented robust measures to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive information. It ensures that no code is stored externally, offering features like privacy mode. Privacy mode can be enabled during onboarding or in settings. When it is enabled, Cursor guarantees that code data is not stored in plaintext on their servers or by their subprocessors. Privacy mode can be enabled by anyone (free or Pro user). Additionally, Cursor is SOC 2 compliant, ensuring high security and data protection standards.

Windsurf also prioritizes code security and matches Cursor's SOC 2 Type II compliance. However, it goes further by focusing on "no training on non-permissive data" and providing an optional zero-day data retention policy, which means user data is not stored beyond the session. For enterprise users, Windsurf supports self-hosted deployments, allowing AI models to run locally. It ensures that Windsurf never accesses user data, which is a significant advantage for developers handling highly sensitive projects.

Verdict: Both Cursor and Windsurf deliver strong privacy and security measures, but Windsurf's additional features, such as optional zero-day data retention and self-hosted AI models for enterprise customers, make it particularly appealing for teams prioritizing maximum data privacy.

Pricing

Cursor offers a free tier, but with a limitation of 2,000 code completions per month only. Paid plans start at $20/month. They add unlimited completions and unlimited slow AI model requests. A business plan is $40/user/month, which adds admin tools, centralized billing, and privacy enforcement. A 20% discount for annual subscribers is available.

Windsurf offers a free tier for individuals with unlimited code completion and AI chat with Cascade feature in read-only mode. On December 6, Windsurf introduced changes to its pricing policy. Individual paid plans now start at $15/month (before December 6, it was $10/month), adding more context length, access to larger models, and unlimited access to SuperComplete. Organization plans start from $35/month (before December 6, it was $24/month) per seat and add collaboration features, organizational analytics, and seat management. And finally, there is an enterprise plan for larger organizations at custom pricing, which offers private deployment, fine-tuned models, and much more. 

Verdict: Windsurf wins in terms of pricing, even after the pricing update, offering premium 

features at a much lower cost or even for free in some cases. It still comes with more robust plans for different users and lower entry-level costs, and its free tier has no limitations in contrast to the one from Cursor, ensuring users can leverage its capabilities not worrying about hitting a usage cap. However, it is worth pointing out that after Windsurf’s price review, the pricing gap became less striking. 

Final Verdict

Both Cursor and Windsurf offer exceptional AI-powered coding experiences. Before September 6, we could have said that while Windsurf wasn’t exceptionally better than Cursor, with the free tier and lower cost, it did seem like a better option. Cursor had solid AI features, but the higher pricing compared to Windsurf didn't feel justified. After Windsurf changed its pricing on December 6, its free tier remains unbeatable, but the gap between Cursor and Windsurf's paid plans has narrowed. Now, if you need more than the free tier offers, choosing between them may come down to your development style and project requirements. If you need speed and precise code suggestions, Cursor is hard to beat, but if you work on large, complex codebases and can tolerate slightly slower AI responses, Windsurf might be your tool of choice, especially with its deep codebase understanding. 

Verdict: Both Windsurf and Cursor are forks of VS Code, making them familiar to developers who were used to it. They aim to accelerate development, and both offer exceptional AI-powered coding experiences.