The battle for one of the best AI coding software could also be getting outdated, but it surely’s removed from shedding its spark. Whereas GitHub Co2pilot, the long-standing champion, has reigned supreme for years, Cursor arrived to problem its dominance. Following a number of ups and downs and a slew of coding instruments getting into the fray, Windsurf appears to have taken the highest spot once more, and for all the nice causes.
Builders are transitioning from Anysphere’s Cursor to Codeium’s Windsurf quicker than ever as builders uncover that the platform isn’t solely similar to Cursor but additionally quicker and extra correct.
“Everyone seems to be speaking about Cursor, but when I have been an investor, I’d desire Windsurf. Their engineering capabilities, particularly in product design, far surpass these of Cursor,” Steve Yeow, co-founder of OriginX AI, mentioned on X. Based on him, with each new launch, Windsurf simply retains getting higher.
In November, Codeium, one of many greatest rivals to Cursor and GitHub Copilot, launched Windsurf, claiming to be the primary agentic IDE for coding. Windsurf’s efficiency, notably its Cascade Base mannequin, was a big issue influencing the change.
This mannequin, powered by Meta Llama 3.1 70B, provides limitless prompts and performs comparably to premium fashions like Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Cursor’s Composer. “Cascade is significantly better than Composer, in my sincere opinion: no undesirable change between chat and composer; it’s only one cascade in Windsurf,” a developer mentioned.
Furthermore, Windsurf now provides fashions like DeepSeek, Anthropic’s Claude, and even OpenAI’s o3-Mini.
Why is the Shift Taking place Now?
Rick Lamers, an AI researcher and engineer at Groq, mentioned he waited too lengthy to check out Windsurf and has now realised that it’s “far more agentic than Cursor”. This sentiment is echoed in neighborhood discussions, the place customers spotlight Windsurf’s superior context dealing with, particularly when enhancing a number of information.
Windsurf appears extra dependable for enhancing a number of information and is aware of the context higher. Kevin Hou, head of product engineering at Windsurf, hinted on the upcoming launch of its AI code editor. This launch will higher deal with shorter contexts, an space the place Cursor at present excels.
“After three months of utilizing Cursor, I switched to Windsurf and located it cheaper with its limitless Cascade base mannequin performing very near Claude 3.5 Sonnet,” a developer mentioned.
Pricing performs a pivotal function in software choice. Windsurf fees $15 per 30 days for its companies, offering 500 premium mannequin prompts and limitless entry to the Cascade base mannequin. In distinction, Cursor’s primary plan is priced at $20 per 30 days, providing 500 quick premium requests and limitless sluggish requests.
Dharmesh Shah, CTO at HubSpot, just lately shared his expertise on LinkedIn whereas serving to his 14-year-old son select a coding software for an AI-based internet software.
“I personally use Cursor for my improvement, however [I’m] undecided if it’s the only option for a ‘generate a complete app’ use case. I’ve heard good issues about Bolt and Windsurf,” he mentioned, including that he’s additionally a fan of Replit.
Cursor is Additionally Getting Higher
Reacting to Shah’s remark, Jonathan Tushman, CPO and CTO at Hello Marley, mentioned, “Proper now, it’s a toss-up between Cursor and Windsurf. However for newbies, Windsurf has the benefit. They’ve simply launched a significant improve that features internet search, which is a giant deal.”
In sensible functions, particularly with massive codebases and sophisticated tasks, reliability and accuracy are paramount. Some builders have noticed that whereas Cursor delivers high-quality responses, it often produces hallucinations or nonsensical outputs.
Windsurf, however, has been praised for its constant efficiency in understanding and enhancing a number of information, which is essential for large-scale tasks. “Cursor is genuinely performant. Its pace and the standard of its responses are satisfying. That mentioned, even with well-crafted prompts, it typically hallucinates and generates nonsense.”
All issues thought of, each the instruments are extra comparable than they’re totally different.
Each Cursor and Windsurf are constructed upon the open-source VSCodium, permitting customers to combine current extensions, themes, and keybindings. This compatibility ensures that builders can preserve their most well-liked workflows with out disruption.
Regardless of this, builders don’t all the time stick to 1 coding software. They bounce between Cursor, Windsurf, GitHub Copilot, Aider, Pearl, Void, Melty, Zed, Cline, and 100 others on a month-to-month foundation. The reality is, none of them have reached perfection.
The submit Builders are Lastly Ditching Cursor for Windsurf appeared first on Analytics India Journal.
