Cursor
The AI-first code editor most startups switched to
Cursor is a VS Code fork rebuilt around AI: predictive Tab edits, codebase-aware chat and background agents that take a task and return a diff. It is…
Windsurf
AI IDE with the Cascade agent, now part of Cognition
Windsurf (renamed Devin Desktop in mid-2026 after Cognition acquired it) is a VS Code-based editor whose Cascade agent keeps deep context on your project and can run multi-step tasks. It sits alongside Cognition's Devin cloud agent.
Best for: developers wanting an agentic IDE alternative to Cursor
What works
- Cascade agent handles long tasks
- Free tier to start
- Cheaper Teams tier than Cursor
What to know
- Product name and ownership changed twice
- Smaller community than Cursor
Alternatives
GitHub Copilot
The most widely used AI pair programmer, inside your editor
Copilot lives in VS Code, JetBrains, Neovim and GitHub itself, offering completions, chat and an agent mode that opens pull requests. The free tier…
Claude Code
Anthropic's terminal agent that works across your whole repo
Claude Code runs in your terminal or IDE and takes on multi-file tasks: read the codebase, plan, edit, run tests, open a PR. It is included with…