Cursor vs Windsurf: what 3 developers chose.
802 opinions. 3 developers named a direct preference: Windsurf 2–1. Approval is 55% vs 58%.
Windsurf wins the direct preference 2–1, but both tools score best on the same topic. Use the decision cards below to choose on workflow.
Choose Cursor if you…
- Want the largest and most active user base to learn from
- Prioritize speed and UX over reliability
- Want one interface for Claude, Codex and other agents
Choose Windsurf if you…
- Want a $20 plan that covers nearly all models
- Rely on free unlimited tab completion
- Accept a thin evidence base and reports of shrinking quotas
Cursor and Windsurf: where each one wins.
Net sentiment per topic: praise minus complaints, as a share of mentions. Positive means more praise than complaints. Hover a dot for the raw counts.
Net sentiment = praise minus complaints, as a share of each tool's mentions. The dot lanes are only for readability; position is the score.
View data table
| Topic | Cursor | Windsurf | Mentions |
|---|---|---|---|
| UX | +26 | +33 | 160 / 6 |
| Cost & pricing | -2 | +14 | 118 / 7 |
| Reliability | -61 | -100 | 72 / 3 |
The same decision, from both sides.
Paraphrased from comments where a developer named a preference or described a switch. Each links to the original.
Picked Cursor 1 developers
Tried many commercial and open source rivals and says Cursor's harness is far faster and better featured, with direct competitors not close.
Picked Windsurf 2 developers
Rates Windsurf about ten times better than Cursor and is puzzled it draws so little discussion on Hacker News.
Long-time Windsurf advocate who called it far ahead of Cursor, but moved to Codex over cloud environments and pricing concerns.
The numbers.
| Metric | Cursor | Windsurf |
|---|---|---|
| Approval | 55% | 58% |
| Last 90 days | 53% | – |
| Opinions | 766 | 36 |
| Developers | 600 | 35 |
| First-hand opinions | 583 | 31 |
| Direct picks | 1 | 2 |
| Type | AI IDE | AI IDE |
| Made by | Anysphere | Cognition |
| Website | Visit ↗ | Visit ↗ |
Related matchups.
Claude Code vs Cursor
61–42 direct picks, and a clear difference in what developers optimise for.
OpenAI Codex vs Cursor
21–7 direct picks, and a clear difference in what developers optimise for.
Cursor vs Zed
14–7 direct picks, and a clear difference in what developers optimise for.
How to read this comparison.
Approval is the positive share of opinions that took a side, with the rank based on the lower bound of a 90% confidence interval. Direct picks count comments where a developer explicitly preferred one tool or described switching. Small samples are noisier; check the opinion counts.
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