Cursor and Windsurf are both AI-native, VS Code-based editors built around an autonomous coding agent, but they optimize for different parts of the job.…
| Cursor | Windsurf | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary category | AI Coding | AI Coding |
| Rating | Not documented | Not documented |
| Pricing model | Freemium | freemium |
| Starting price | Free | Free plan available; Pro from USD15 per user per month |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Not documented | Not documented |
| Platforms | Mac, Windows | Mac, Windows |
| Team collaboration | Not documented | Not documented |
| AI features | Yes | Yes |
| Public API | Yes | Not documented |
Company origin and backing
Cursor: Built by Anysphere, founded 2022, a company focused specifically on the Cursor editor.
Windsurf: Founded in 2021 (as Codeium), acquired by Cognition (maker of the Devin agent) in 2025 for a reported ~$250 million, and rebranded Devin Desktop in June 2026.
Buyers care about roadmap stability and whether a vendor is dedicated to the product they're adopting versus folding it into a broader agent strategy.
Brand stability
Cursor: Product name and identity have been unchanged since launch.
Windsurf: Renamed twice (Codeium to Windsurf to Devin Desktop), with pricing structure also changing more than once.
Renames and pricing changes can create confusion around billing, login, and support continuity for teams standardizing tooling.
Automated PR review
Cursor: Bugbot automatically reviews pull requests for likely bugs and can propose fixes directly on the PR.
Windsurf: Not documented as part of Windsurf's feature set.
Built-in review automation reduces the need for a separate PR-review tool in the workflow.
MCP / external tool connectivity
Cursor: Not documented as a Cursor feature.
Windsurf: Natively supports the Model Context Protocol, letting Cascade connect to external tools, internal systems, and data sources.
MCP support determines how easily a team can extend the agent's context with proprietary systems.
Diff review workflow
Cursor: Not documented as having an explicit per-step diff-approval gate for agent edits.
Windsurf: Cascade stages every edit as a diff with per-step approval, so changes can be reviewed, edited, or rejected before hitting disk.
An explicit staged-approval workflow affects how much a team can trust autonomous edits without manual diffing after the fact.
Background/async agent execution
Cursor: Includes a dedicated background agent that runs longer agentic tasks outside the main editor session.
Windsurf: Not documented as a Windsurf feature.
Offloading long-running tasks lets a developer keep working in the foreground without blocking on the agent.
Enterprise deployment flexibility
Cursor: Enterprise plan is custom-quoted; self-hosted deployment is not documented.
Windsurf: Documents self-hosted and air-gapped deployment options carried over from its Codeium enterprise roots.
Regulated or data-residency-sensitive organizations often require on-prem or air-gapped deployment as a hard requirement.
Third-party integrations
Cursor: Not documented as offering integrations with external collaboration tools.
Windsurf: Documents integrations with tools like Slack, Linear, Figma, and common language servers.
Native integrations reduce context switching for teams whose workflow already lives in those tools.
In-house coding model
Cursor: Offers a choice among multiple frontier AI models; no proprietary in-house model is documented.
Windsurf: Offers its own in-house SWE coding model in addition to Claude and GPT models.
A first-party model can offer different cost or performance tradeoffs than routing exclusively through third-party providers.
Pricing mechanics on paid plans
Cursor: Paid plans use credit-based usage, which can make monthly costs less predictable than a flat subscription.
Windsurf: Pro plan uses daily and weekly Cascade agent quotas, a structure that has itself changed over time from credits to quotas.
Both tools tie cost to usage rather than a simple flat fee, so actual monthly spend depends on how heavily a team relies on the agent.
| Feature | Cursor | Windsurf |
|---|---|---|
| Predictive/Tab-style autocomplete | Available | Available |
| Inline in-place edit via text selection (Cmd+K-style) | Available | Not documented |
| Agentic multi-file editing | Available | Available |
| VS Code fork compatibility (extensions, themes, keybindings) | Available | Available |
| Feature | Cursor | Windsurf |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal command execution by agent | Available | Available |
| Background/async agent execution outside main session | Available | Not documented |
| Per-step diff review/approval before edits apply | Not documented | Available |
| Automated pull request review bot | Available | Not documented |
| Feature | Cursor | Windsurf |
|---|---|---|
| Semantic codebase indexing | Available | Not documented |
| Dedicated codebase-aware chat interface | Available | Not documented |
| Feature | Cursor | Windsurf |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-model support (choice of frontier models) | Available | Available |
| In-house/proprietary coding model | Not documented | Available |
| Feature | Cursor | Windsurf |
|---|---|---|
| Model Context Protocol (MCP) support | Not documented | Available |
| Third-party app integrations (e.g. Slack, Linear, Figma) | Not documented | Available |
| Feature | Cursor | Windsurf |
|---|---|---|
| Single sign-on (SSO) | Available | Available |
| Self-hosted or air-gapped deployment | Not documented | Available |
| Centralized billing and admin dashboard | Available | Available |
Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.
Pros
Cons
Pros
Cons
Both start with a free tier and a $20/month Pro plan, so list prices are effectively tied; the real cost difference comes from usage mechanics, since Cursor's paid plans run on credit-based usage while Windsurf's Pro plan runs on daily and weekly Cascade agent quotas.
Both are VS Code forks that import existing extensions, themes, and keybindings, so neither has a documented edge in switching cost or learning curve for VS Code users.
Not according to the documented feature set; Cursor includes an automated PR-review feature called Bugbot, while Windsurf's documented features do not include an equivalent.
Windsurf documents native Model Context Protocol support for connecting external tools and data into its Cascade agent, while MCP support is not documented as a Cursor feature.
As of June 2026, Cognition rebranded the Windsurf editor as Devin Desktop, though existing Windsurf accounts, plans, and settings carried over automatically and legacy Enterprise customers still log in via windsurf.com/enterprise.
Windsurf documents self-hosted and air-gapped deployment options inherited from its Codeium enterprise roots, while Cursor's Enterprise plan is custom-quoted without documented self-hosting support.