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Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?

• tacker2000 1y ago
  hijacking this thread: Whats the best AI tool for NeoVim ?
  • w4 1y ago
    I’ve really been enjoying the combination of CodeCompanion with Gemini 2.5 for chat, Copilot for completion, and Claude Code/OpenAI Codex for agentic workflows. I had always wanted to get comfortable with Vim, but it never seemed worth the time commitment, especially with how much I’ve been using AI tools since 2021 when Copilot went into beta. But recently I became so frustrated by Cursor’s bugs and tab completion performance regressions that I disabled completions, and started checking out alternatives. This particular combination of plugins has done a nice job of mostly replicating the Cursor functionality I used routinely. Some areas are more pleasant to use, some are a bit worse, but it’s nice overall. And I mostly get to use my own API keys and control the prompts and when things change. I still need to try out Zed’s new features, but I’ve been enjoying daily driving this setup a lot.
• manojkumarsmks 1y ago
  Using cursor.. pretty good tool. Pick one and start.
• sharedptr 1y ago
  Personally copilot/code assist for tab autocomplete, if I need longer boilerplate I request it to the LLM. Usually VIM with LSP. Anything that’s not boilerplate I still code it
• skrhee 1y ago
  Zed! I find it to be less buggy and generally more intuitive to use.
• vasachi 1y ago
  I’d just wait a bit. At current rate of progress winner will be apparent sooner rather than later.
• snthpy 1y ago
  Cline?
  • triptych 1y ago
    I love Cline and use it every day. It works the way I think and makes smart decisions about features.
  • vladstudio 1y ago
    Cline!
  • int_19h 1y ago
    ... if you can afford it. Pay per token can get expensive with large context.
• shaunxcode 1y ago
  neither : my pen is my autocomplete
• outcoldman 1y ago
  I really like Zed. Have not tried any of the mentioned by op. Zed I feel like is getting somewhere that can replace Sublime Text completely (but not there yet).
  • bilekas 1y ago
    Zed is an editor firslty.. The Ops has mentioned options which are AI development "agents" basically.
    • mirekrusin 1y ago
      AI aided development has first class support in Zed. Ie. it's not a "plugin" but built-in ecosystem developed by core team. Speed of iterations on new features is quite impressive. Their latest agentic editing update basically brought claude code cli to the editor. Most corporations don't have direct access to arbitrary LLMs but through Microsoft's Github's Copilot they do – and you can use models through copilot and other providers like Ollama – which is great for work. With their expertise (team behind pioneering tech like electron, atom, teletype, tree sitter, building their own gpu based cross platform ui etc.) and velocity it seems that they're positioned to outpace competition. Personally I'd say that their tech is maybe two orders of magnitude more valuable than windsurf?
      • bilekas 1y ago
        I don't dispite Zed is great, I actually am using it myself, but it's an editor first and foremost. The OP, to me at least seems to be asking more-so about the AI agent comparisons.
        • drcongo 1y ago
          Cursor and Windsurf are both forks of VS Code, an editor.
          • bilekas 1y ago
• danpalmer 1y ago
  Zed. They've upped their game in the AI integration and so far it's the best one I've seen (external from work). Cursor and VSCode+Copilot always felt slow and janky, Zed is much less janky feels like pretty mature software, and I can just plug in my Gemini API key and use that for free/cheap instead of paying for the editor's own integration.
  • catlover76 1y ago
    [dead]
  • wellthisisgreat 1y ago
    Does it have Cursor’s “tab” feature?
    • dvtfl 1y ago
      Yep: https://zed.dev/blog/edit-prediction https://zed.dev/blog/edit-prediction
      • eadz 1y ago
        It would be great if there was an easy way to run their open model (https://huggingface.co/zed-industries/zeta https://huggingface.co/zed-industries/zeta) locally ( for latency reasons ). I don't think Zeta is quite up to windsurf's completion quality/speed. I get that this would go against their business model, but maybe people would pay for this - it could in theory be the fastest completion since it would run locally.
        • xmorse 1y ago
          Running models locally is very expensive in terms of memory and scheduling requirements, maybe instead they should host their model on the Cloudflare AI network which is distributed all around the world and can have lower latency
        • rfoo 1y ago
          > the fastest completion since it would run locally We are living in a strange age that local is slower than the cloud. Due to the sheer amount of compute we need to do. Compute takes hundreds of milliseconds (if not seconds) on local hardware, making 100ms of network latency irrelevant. Even for a 7B model your expensive Mac or 4090 can't beat, for example, a box with 8x A100s running FOSS serving stack (sglang) with TP=8, in latency.
• SafeDusk 1y ago
  I am betting on myself. I built a minimal agentic framework (with editing capability) that works for a lot of my tasks with just seven tools: read, write, diff, browse, command, ask and think. One thing I'm proud of is the ability to have it be more proactive in making changes and taking next action by just disabling the `ask` tool. I won't say it is better than any of the VSCode forks, but it works for 70% of my tasks in an understandable manner. As for the remaining stuff, I can always use Cursor/Windsurf in a complementary manner. It is open, have a look at https://github.com/aperoc/toolkami https://github.com/aperoc/toolkami if it interests you.
  • recov 1y ago
    Nearly all of your comments have been self promo, I would chill out a bit
• websap 1y ago
  Currently using cursor. I've found cursor even without the AI features to be a more responsive VS Code. I've found the AI features to be particularly useful when I contain the blast radius to a unit of work. If I am continuously able to break down my work into smaller pieces and build a tight testing loop, it does help me be more productive.
  • random42 1y ago
    How do you define a unit of work for your purposes?
• ebr4him 1y ago
  Both, most times one works better than the other.
• rcarmo 1y ago
  Neither. VS Code or Zed.
• joelthelion 1y ago
  Aider! Use the editor of your choice and leave your coding assistant separate. Plus, it's open source and will stay like this, so no risk to see it suddenly become expensive or dissappear.
  • mbanerjeepalmer 1y ago
    I used to be religiously pro-Aider. But after a while those little frictions flicking backwards and forwards between the terminal and VS Code, and adding and dropping from the context myself, have worn down my appetite to use it. The `--watch` mode is a neat solution but harms performance. The LLM gets distracted by deleting its own comment. Roo is less solid but better-integrated. Hopefully I'll switch back soon.
    • fragmede 1y ago
      I suspect that if you're a vim user those friction points are a bit different. For me, Aider's git auto commit and /undo command are what sells it for me at this current junction of technology. OpenHands looks promising, though rather complex.
      • movq 1y ago
        The (relative) simplicity is what sells aider for me (it also helps that I use neovim in tmux). It was easy to figure out exactly what it's sending to the LLM, and I like that it does one thing at a time. I want to babysit my LLMs and those "agentic" tools that go off and do dozens of things in a loop make me feel out of control.
        • ayewo 1y ago
          I like your framing about “feeling out of control”. For the occasional frontend task, I don’t mind being out of control when using agentic tools. I guess this is the origin of Karpathy’s vibe coding moniker: you surrender to the LLM’s coding decisions. For backend tasks, which is my bread and butter, I certainly want to know what it’s sending to the LLM so it’s just easier to use the chat interface directly. This way I am fully in control. I can cherry pick the good bits out of whatever the LLM suggests or redo my prompt to get better suggestions.
• anonymoushn 1y ago
  I evaluated Windsurf at a friend's recommendation around half a year ago and found that it could not produce any useful behaviors on files above a thousand lines or so. I understand this is mostly a property of the model, but certainly also a property of the approach used by the editor of just tossing the entire file in, yeah? I haven't tried any of these products since then, but it might be worth another shot because Gemini might be able to handle these files.
  • eadz 1y ago
    A year is a long time. Even in the past few months it has improved a lot.
  • sumedh 1y ago
    Windsurf has improved a lot in the last few months.
• eisfresser 1y ago
  Windsurf at the moment. It now can run multiple "flows" in parallel, so I can set one cascade off to look into a bug somewhere while another cascade implements a feature elswhere in the code base. The LLMs spit out their tokens in the background, I drop in eventually to reveiew and accept or ask for further changes.
  • Alifatisk 1y ago
    We are truly living in the future
  • ximeng 1y ago
    Cursor offers this too - open different tabs in chat and ask for different changes; they’ll run in parallel.
    • frainfreeze 1y ago
      Until you change model in one of the tabs and all other tabs (and editor instances!) get model changed, stop what they're doing, lose context etc. There is also a bug where if you have two editors working on two codebases they get lost and start working on same thing, I suppose there is some kind of a background workspace that gets mixed up.
  • mirekrusin 1y ago
    Zed has this background flow as well, you can see in the video [0] from their latest blog post. [0] https://zed.dev/blog/fastest-ai-code-editor https://zed.dev/blog/fastest-ai-code-editor
• da_me 1y ago
  Cursor for personal projects and Just Pycharm for work projects.
• geoffbp 1y ago
  Vs code with agent mode
• adocomplete 1y ago
  Amp. Early access waitlist -> ampcode.com
  • kondu 1y ago
    I'd love to try it, could you please share an invite? My email is on my profile page.
  • kixpanganiban 1y ago
    Interesting! Do you have an invite to spare? My email is in my bio
  • dotemacs 1y ago
    This is a product by Sourcegraph https://sourcegraph.com https://sourcegraph.com who already have a solution in this space. Is this something wildly different to Cody, your existing solution, or just a "subtle" attempt to gain more customers?
• sidcool 1y ago
  VS Code with Copilot.
  • urbandw311er 1y ago
    This is the way. Getting great results both in chat, edit and now agentic mode. Don’t have to worry about any blocked extensions in the cat and mouse game with MS.
• pbowyer 1y ago
  I've had trials for both running and tested both on the same codebases. Cursor works roughly how I've expected. It reads files and either gets it right or wrong in agent mode. Windsurf seems restricted to reading files 50 lines at a time, and often will stop after 200 lines [0]. When dealing with existing code I've been getting poorer results than Cursor. As to autocomplete: perhaps I haven't set up either properly (for PHP) but the autocomplete in both is good for pattern matching changes I make, and terrible for anything that require knowledge of what methods an object has, the parameters a method takes etc. They both hallucinate wildly, and so I end up doing bits of editing in Cursor/Windsurf and having the same project open in PhpStorm and making use of its intellisense. I'm coming to the end of both trials and the AI isn't adding enough over Jetbrains PhpStorm's built in features, so I'm going back to that until I figure out how to reduce hallucinations. 0. https://www.reddit.com/r/Codeium/comments/1hsn1xw/report_from_a_windsurf_user/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Codeium/comments/1hsn1xw/report_fro...
• jsumrall 1y ago
  Amazon Q. Claude Code is great (the best imho, what everything else measures against right now), and Amazon Q seems almost as good and for the first week I've been using it I'm still on the free tier. The flat pricing of Claude Code seems tempting, but it's probably still cheaper for me to go with usage pricing. I feel like loading my Anthropic account with the minimum of $5 each time would last me 2-3 days depending on usage. Some days it wouldn't last even a day. I'll probably give Open AI's Codex a try soon, and also circle back to Aider after not using it for a few months. I don't know if I misundersand something with Cursor or Copilot. It seems so much easier to use Claude Code than Cursor, as Claude Code has many more tools for figuring things out. Cursor also required me to add files to the context, which I thought it should 'figure out' on its own.
  • jatins 1y ago
    this is the first time I am seeing someone says good things about Amazon Q Do they publish any benchmark sheet on how it compares against others?
    • retinaros 1y ago
      It is currently at top3 in swe bench verified. It went through multiple stages of upgrades and I would say at this stage it is better than copilot. Fundamentally it is as good as cursor or windsurf but lacks some features and cannot match their speed of release. If you re on aws tho its a compelling offering.
  • wordofx 1y ago
    > I don't know if I misundersand something with Cursor or Copilot. It seems so much easier to use Claude Code than Cursor, as Claude Code has many more tools for figuring things out. Cursor also required me to add files to the context, which I thought it should 'figure out' on its own. Cursor can find files on its own. But if you point it in the right direction it has far better results than Claude code.
  • quintes 1y ago
    I remember asking Amazon Q something and it wouldn’t reply cuz of security policy or something. It was as far as I can remember a legit question around Iam policy which I was trying to configure. I figured it out back in Google search.
• coolcase 1y ago
  Still on codeium lol! Might give aider another spin. It is never been quite good for my needs but tech evolves.
• Alifatisk 1y ago
  Trae.ai actually, otherwise Windsurf
• fastball 1y ago
  For the agentic stuff I think every solution can be hit or miss. I've tried claude code, aider, cline, cursor, zed, roo, windsurf, etc. To me it is more about using the right models for the job, which is also constantly in flux because the big players are constantly updating their models and sometimes that is good and sometimes that is bad. But I daily drive Cursor because the main LLM feature I use is tab-complete, and here Cursor blows the competition out of the water. It understands what I want to do next about 95% of the time when I'm in the middle of something, including comprehensive multi-line/multi-file changes. Github Copilot, Zed, Windsurf, and Cody aren't at the same level imo.
  • solumunus 1y ago
    If we’re talking purely auto complete I think Supermaven does it the best.
    • fastball 1y ago
      Cursor bought Supermaven last year.
      • xmorse 1y ago
        It still works
        • freehorse 1y ago
          Do they actually improve the model you can get without cursor? Or in reality all the development goes to cursor's autocomplete without making this available to supermaven subscribers? It is hard to make sure of that from their website and lack of info online.
          • xmorse 1y ago
            Probably not
    • catlover76 1y ago
• speedgoose 1y ago
  I’m using Github Copilot in VScode Insiders, mostly because I don’t want yet another subscription. I guess I’m missing out.
• chrisvalleybay 1y ago
  Cursor has for me had the best UX and results until now. Trae's way of adding context is way too annoying. Windsurf has minor UI-issues all over. Options that are extensions in VSCode do not cut it in turn of providing fantastic UI/UX because of the API not supporting it.
• pinoy420 1y ago
  [dead]
• erenst 1y ago
  I’ve been using Zed Agent with GitHub Copilot’s models, but with GitHub planning to limit usage, I’m exploring alternatives. Now I'm testing Claude Code’s $100 Max plan. It feels like magic - editing code and fixing compile errors until it builds. The downside is I’m reviewing the code a lot less since I just let the agent run. So far, I’ve only tried it on vibe coding game development, where every model I’ve tested struggles. It says “I rewrote X to be more robust and fixed the bug you mentioned,” yet the bug still remains. I suspect it will work better for backend web development I do for work: write a failing unit test, then ask the agent to implement the feature and make the test pass. Also, give Zed’s Edit Predictions a try. When refactoring, I often just keep hitting Tab to accept suggestions throughout the file.
  • energy123 1y ago
    Can you say more to reconcile "It feels like magic" with "every model I’ve tested struggles."?
    • erenst 1y ago
      It feels like magic when it works and it at least gets the code to compile. Other models* would usually return a broken code. Specially when using a new release of a library. All the models use the old function signatures, but Claud Code then sees compile error and fixes it. Compared to Zed Agent, Claude Code is: - Better at editing files. Zed would sometimes return the file content in the chatbox instead of updating it. Zed Agent also inserted a new function in the middle of the existing function. - Better at running tests/compiling. Zed struggled with nix environment and I don't remember it going to the update code -> run code -> update code feedback loop. With this you can leave Claude Code alone for a few minutes, check back and give additional instructions. With Zed Agent it was more of a constantly monitoring / copy pasting and manually verifying everything. *I haven't tested many of the other tools mentioned here, this is mostly my experience with Zed and copy/pasting code to AI. I plan to test other tools when my Claude Code subscription expires next month.
  • seabass 1y ago
    Zed's agentic editing with Claude 3.7 + thinking does what you're describing testing out with the $100 Claude Code tool. Why leave the Zed editor and pay more to do something you can run for free/cheap within it instead?
• LOLwierd 1y ago
  zed!! the base editor is just better then vscode. and they just released agentic editing.
• lemontheme 1y ago
  OP probably means to keep using vscode. Honestly, best thing you can do is just try each for a few weeks. Feature comparison tables only say so much, particularly because the terminology is still in a state of flux. I’ve personally never felt at home in vscode. If you’re open to switching, definitely check out Zed, as others are suggesting.
• dvtfl 1y ago
  If you don't mind not having DAP and Windows support, then Zed is great.
• retinaros 1y ago
  I am using both. Windsurf feels complete less clunky. They are very close tho and the pace of major updates is crazy. I dont like CLI based tools to code. Dont understand why they are being shilled. Claude code is maybe better at coding from scratch because it is only raw power and eating tokens like there is no tomorrow but it us the wrong interface to build anything serious.
• Artgor 1y ago
  Claude Code. And... Junie in Jetbrains IDE. It appeared recently and I'm really impressed by its quality. I think it is on the level of Claude Code.
  • Euphorbium 1y ago
    I think it uses claude code by default, it is literally the same thing, with different (better) interface.
    • _1tem 1y ago
      Really interesting. Source?
      • cdrx 1y ago
        Junie in Ask mode: > Which LLM are you? > I am Claude, an AI assistant created by Anthropic. In this interface, I'm operating as "Junie," a helpful assistant designed to explore codebases and answer questions about projects. I'm built on Anthropic's large language model technology, specifically the Claude model family. Jetbrains wider AI tools let you choose the model that gets used but as far as I can tell Junie doesn't. That said, it works great.
        • jbellis 1y ago
          That just means it's using Sonnet, not that it's using Claude Code.
          • frainfreeze 1y ago
            Even that doesn't have to be true, LLMs often impersonate other popular models.
            • jbellis 1y ago
              usually OpenAI, but yes
• pembrook 1y ago
  For a time windsurf was way ahead of cursor in full agentic coding, but now I hear cursor has caught up. I have yet to switch back to try out cursor again but starting to get frustrated with Windsurf being restricted to gathering context only 100-200 lines at a time. So many of the bugs and poor results that it can introduce are simply due to improper context. When forcibly giving it the necessary context you can clearly see it’s not a model problem but it’s a problem with the approach of gathering disparate 100 line snippets at a time. Also, it struggles with files over 800ish lines which is extremely annoying We need some smart deepseek-like innovation in context gathering since the hardware and cost of tokens is the real bottleneck here.
  • evolve2k 1y ago
    Wait, are these 800 lines of code? Am I the only one seeing that as a major code smell? Assuming these are code files, the issue is not AI processing power but rather bread and butter coding practices related to file organisation and modularisation.
    • ThomasRedstone 1y ago
      The people editing 800+ line files often didn't write them, legacy codebases often stink! I've dealt with a few over the years with 30k+ line long files, always aiming to refactor that into something more sensible, but that's only possible over a long time.
    • kypro 1y ago
      I agree, but I've worked with many people now who seem to prefer one massive file. Specifically Python and React people seem to do this a lot. Frustrates the hell out of me as someone who thinks at 300-400 lines generally you should start looking at breaking things up.
    • pembrook 1y ago
      I agree if the point is to write code for human consumption, but the point of vibe coding tools like Windsurf is to let the LLMs handle everything with occasional direction. And the LLMs will create 2000+ line files when asking them to generate anything from scratch. To generate such files and then not be able to read them is pure stupidity.
• hliyan 1y ago
  I think with the answer, each responder should include their level of coding proficiency. Or, at least whether they are able to (or even bother to) read the code that the tool generates. Preferences would vary wildly based on it.
• killerstorm 1y ago
  Cursor: Autocomplete is really good. At a time when I compared them, it was without a doubt better than Githib Copilot autocomplete. Cmd-K - insert/edit snippet at cursor - is good when you use good old Sonnet 3.5. ;;; Agent mode, is, honestly, quite disappointing; it doesn't feel like they put a lot of thought into prompting and wrapping LLM calls. Sometimes it just fails to submit code changes. Which is especially bad as they charge you for every request. Also I think they over-charge for Gemini, and Gemini integration is especially poor. My reference for agent mode is Claude Code. It's far from perfect, but it uses sub-tasks and summarization using smaller haiku model. That feels way more like a coherent solution compared to Cursor. Also Aider ain't bad when you're OK with more manual process. Windsurf: Have only used it briefly, but agent mode seems somewhat better thought out. For example, they present possible next steps as buttons. Some reviews say it's even more expensive than Cursor in agent mode.
  • killerstorm 1y ago
    Also something to consider: I have a script I wrote myself which just feeds selected files as a context to LLM and then either writes a response to the stdout, or extracts a file out of it. That seems to be often better than using Cursor. I don't really understand why it calls tools when I selected entire file to be used a context - tool calls seem to be unnecessary distraction in this case, making calls more expensive. Also Gemini less neurotic when I use it with very basic prompts -- either Cursor prompts make it worse, or the need to juggle tool calls distract it from calls.
• powerapple 1y ago
  I tested windsurf last week, it installed all dependencies to my global python....it didn't know best practices for Python, and didn't create any virtual env..... I am disappointed. My Cursor experience was slightly better. Still, one issue I had was how to make sure it does not change the part of code I don't want it to change. Every time you ask it to do something for A, it rewrote B in the process, very annoying. My best experience so far is v0.dev :)
• karbon0x 1y ago
  Claude Code
• outside1234 1y ago
  VSCode with Github Copilot!
• dkaleta 1y ago
  Since this topic is closely related to my new project, I’d love to hear your opinion on it. I’m thinking of building an AI IDE that helps engineers write production quality code quickly when working with AI. The core idea is to introduce a new kind of collaboration workflow. You start with the same kind of prompt, like “I want to build this feature...”, but instead of the model making changes right away, it proposes an architecture for what it plans to do, shown from a bird’s-eye view in the 2D canvas. You collaborate with the AI on this architecture to ensure everything is built the way you want. You’re setting up data flows, structure, and validation checks. Once you’re satisfied with the design, you hit play, and the model writes the code. Website (in progress): https://skylinevision.ai https://skylinevision.ai YC Video showing prototype that I just finished yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXlHNJPQRtk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXlHNJPQRtk Karpathy’s post that talks about this: https://x.com/karpathy/status/1917920257257459899 https://x.com/karpathy/status/1917920257257459899 Thoughts? Do you think this workflow has a chance of being adopted?
  • rkuodys 1y ago
    I quite liked the video. Hope you get to launch the product and I could try it out some day. The only thing that I kept thinking about was - if there is a correction needed- you have to make it fully by hand. Find everything and map. However, if the first try was way off , I would like to enter from "midpoint" a correction that I want. So instead of fixing 50%, I would be left with maybe 10 or 20. Don't know if you get what I mean.
    • dkaleta 1y ago
      Yes, the idea is to ‘speak/write’ to the local model to fix those little things so you don’t have to do them by hand. I actually already have a fine-tuned Qwen model running on Apple’s MLX to handle some of that, but given the hard YC deadline, it didn’t make it into the demo. Eventually, you’d say, ‘add an additional layer, TopicsController, between those two files,’ and the local model would do it quickly without a problem, since it doesn’t involve complicated code generation. You’d only use powerful remote models at the end.
  • 1y ago
• ReDeiPirati 1y ago
  Recently started using Cursor for adding a new feature on a small codebase for work, after a couple of years where I didn't code. It took me a couple of tries to figure out how to work with the tool effectively, but it worked great! I'm now learning how to use it with TaskMaster, it's such a different way to do and play with software. Oh, one important note: I went with Cursor also because of the pricing, that's despite confusing in term of fast vs slow requests, it smells less consumption base. BTW There's a new OSS competitor in town that got the front a couple of days ago - Void: Open-source Cursor alternative https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43927926 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43927926
• abeyer 1y ago
  vi
• monster_truck 1y ago
  Void. I'd rather run my own models locally https://voideditor.com/ https://voideditor.com/
  • traktorn 1y ago
    Which model are you running locally? Is it faster than waiting for Claudes generation? What gear do you use?
    • jhonof 1y ago
      Not OP but for autocomplete I am running Qwen2.5-Coder-7B and I quantized it using Q2_K. I followed this guide: https://blog.steelph0enix.dev/posts/llama-cpp-guide/#quantizing-the-model https://blog.steelph0enix.dev/posts/llama-cpp-guide/#quantiz... And I get fast enough autcomplete results for it to be useful. I have and NVIDIA 4060 RTX in a laptop with 8 gigs of dedicated memory that I use for it. I still use claude for chat (pair programming) though, and I don't really use agents.
    • monster_truck 1y ago
      That's the fun part, you can use all of them! And you don't need to use browser plugins or console scripts to auto-retry failures (there aren't any) or queue up a ton of tasks overnight. Have a 3950X w/ 32GB ram, Radeon VII & 6900XT sitting in the closet hosting smaller models then a 5800X3D/128GB/7900XTX as my main machine. Most any quantized model that fits in half of the vram of a single gpu (and ideally supports flash attention, optionally speculative decoding) will give you far faster autocompletes. This is especially the case with the Radeon VII thanks to the memory bandwidth.
• dhruv3006 1y ago
  cursor.
• taherchhabra 1y ago
  Claude code is the best so far, I am using the 200$ plan. in terms of feature matrix all tools are almost same with some hits and misses but speed is something which claude code wins.
  • smerrill25 1y ago
    Do you think you use more than just 200$ worth of API credits in a month? I've used both Claude Code and Cursor, and I find myself liking the Terminal CLI, but the price is much more than 20$ per month for me.
    • taherchhabra 1y ago
      I was spending around 8 - 10$ in 2-4 hours easily and I had to be conscious of the credits being deducted, so 200$ for a month unlimited usage didn't seemed too bad, and now i just throw a lot of code generated by claude if a don't like and retry from scratch
• welder 1y ago
  Neither? I'm surprised nobody has said it yet. I turned off AI autocomplete, and sometimes use the chat to debug or generate simple code but only when I prompt it to. Continuous autocomplete is just annoying and slows me down.
  • raverbashing 1y ago
    Yeah AI autocomplete is a feature, not a product (to paraphrase SJ) I can understand Windsurf getting the valuation as they had their own Codeium model $B for a VSCode fork? Lol
    • nicce 1y ago
      Microsoft seems to be always winner - maybe they predicted all this and for this reason they made core extensions closed source.
  • kristopolous 1y ago
    Agreed. You may like the arms-length stuff here: https://github.com/day50-dev/llmehelp https://github.com/day50-dev/llmehelp . shell-hook.zsh and screen-query have been life-changing I always forget syntax for things like ssh port forwarding. Now just describe it at the shell: $ ssh (take my local port 80 and forward it to 8080 on the machine betsy) user@betsy or maybe: $ ffmpeg -ss 0:10:00 -i somevideo.mp4 -t 1:00 (speed it up 2x) out.webm I press ctrl+x x and it will replace the english with a suggested command. It's been a total game changer for git, jq, rsync, ffmpeg, regex.. For more involved stuff there's screen-query: Confusing crashes, strange terminal errors, weird config scripts, it allows a joint investigation whereas aider and friends just feels like I'm asking AI to fuck around.
    • nicce 1y ago
      This never accesses any extradata and works only when explicitly asked? I find terminal as most important part from privacy perspective and I haven’t tried any LLM integration yet…
• anotheryou 1y ago
  Windsurf, no autocomplete. you should also ask if people acutally used both :)
• webprofusion 1y ago
  I just use Copilot (across VS Code, VS etc), it lets you pick the model you want and it's a fixed monthly cost (and there is a free tier). They have most of the core features of these other tools now. Cursor, Windsurf et al have no "moat" (in startup speak), in that a sufficiently resourced organization (e.g. Microsoft) can just copy anything they do well. VS code/Copilot has millions of users, cursor etc have hundreds of thousands of users. Google claims to have "hundreds of millions" of users but we can be pretty sure that they are quoting numbers for their search product.
• ChocolateGod 1y ago
  I use Windsurf but it's been having ridiculous downtime lately. I can't use Cursor because I don't use Ubuntu which is what their Linux packages are compiled against and they don't run on my non-Ubuntu distro of choice.
• bundie 1y ago
  None
• victorbjorklund 1y ago
  I'm with Cursor for the simple reason it is in practice unlimited. Honestly the slow requests after 500 per month are fast enough. Will I stay with Cursor? No, ill switch the second something better comes along.
  • herbst 1y ago
    On weekend the slow requests regularly are faster than the paid requests.
  • rvnx 1y ago
    Cursor is acceptable because for the price it's unbeatable. Free, unlimited requests are great. But by itself, Cursor is not anything special. It's only interesting because they pay Claude or Gemini from their pockets. Ideally, things like RooCode + Claude are much better, but you need infinite money glitch.
  • mdrzn 1y ago
    Same. Love the "slow but free" model, I hope they can continue providing it, I love paying only $20/m instead of having a pay by usage. I've been building SO MANY small apps and web apps in the latest months, best $20/m ever spent.
    • k4rli 1y ago
      20€ seems totally subsidized considering the amount of tokens. Pricing cheaply to be competitive but users will jump to the next one when they inevitably hike the price up.
  • xiphias2 1y ago
    I'm cursor with claude 3.7 Somehow other models don't work as well with it. ,,auto'' is the worst. Still, I hate it when it deletes all my unit tests to ,,make them pass''
    • didgeoridoo 1y ago
      Or when it arbitrarily decides to rewrite half the content on your website and not mention it. Or, my favorite: when you’ve been zeroing in on something actually interesting and it says at the last minute, “let’s simplify our approach”. It then proceeds to rip out all the code you’ve written for the last 15 minutes and insert a trivial simulacrum of the feature you’ve been working on that does 2% of what you originally specified. $5 to anyone who can share a rules.md file that consistently guides Sonnet 3.7 to give up and hand back control when it has no idea what it’s doing, rather than churn hopelessly and begin slicing out nearby unrelated code like it’s trying to cut out margins around a melanoma.
• suninsight 1y ago
  https://nonbios.ai https://nonbios.ai - [Disclosure: I am working on this.] - We are in public beta and free for now. - Fully Agentic. Controllable and Transparent. Agent does all the work, but keeps you in the loop. You can take back control anytime and guide it. - Not an IDE, so don't compete with VSCode forks. Interface is just a chatbox. - More like Replit - but full stack focussed. You can build backend services. - Videos are up at youtube.com/@nonbios
• unsupp0rted 1y ago
  Asking HN this is like asking which smartphone to use. You'll get suggestions for obscure Linux-based modular phones that weigh 6 kilos and lack a clock app or wifi. But they're better because they're open source or fully configurable or whatever. Or a smartphone that a fellow HNer created in his basement and plans to sell soon. Cursor and Windsurf are both good, but do what most people do and use Cursor for a month to start with.
  • mohsen1 1y ago
    haha so on point! In the HN world, backend are written in Rust with formal proof and frontend are in pure JS and maybe Web Components. In the real world however, a lot of people are using different tech
    • ziml77 1y ago
      Except for the crowd of extreme purists on HN where the backend is written in their divine C language by programmers blessed with an inability to ever have bugs that make it to production. Ad where the frontend is pure HTML because JavaScript is the language the devil speaks.
  • jasongill 1y ago
    "The clock app isn't missing! You just have to cross-compile it from source and flash a custom firmware that allows loading it!"
  • notepad0x90 1y ago
    Surely, you're not the only one here that doesn't share the open source extremist views. HN has a diverse user base.
  • hackitup7 1y ago
    It's frightening how well you called this, if you scroll down the page literally exactly the dynamic that you mentioned is playing out in real time. I use Cursor and I like it a lot.
  • pram 1y ago
• khwhahn 1y ago
  I wish your own coding would just be augmented like somebody looking over your shoulder. The problem with the current AI coding is that you don't know your code base anymore. Basically, like somebody helping you figure out stuff faster, update documentation etc.
  • frainfreeze 1y ago
    "Throughly review my code change (git diff HEAD), {extra context etc}"
  • satvikpendem 1y ago
    You can do that by not using the agent workflow and just using the ask / chat feature, and coding the actual code yourself.
• octocop 1y ago
  Use vim
• MangoCoffee 1y ago
  VScode + Github Copilot Pro. $10 per month to try out AI code assist is cheap enough
• jonwinstanley 1y ago
  Has anyone had any joy using a local model? Or is it still too slow? On something like a M4 Macbook Pro can local models replace the connection to OpenAi/Anthropic?
  • frainfreeze 1y ago
    For advanced autocomplete (not code generation, but can do that too), basic planning, looking things up instead of web search, review & summary, even one shooting smaller scripts, the 32b Q4 models proved very good for me (24gb VRAM RTX 3090). All LLM caveats still apply, of course. Note that setting up local llm in cursor is pain because they don't support local host. Ngrok or vps and reverse ssh solve that though.
  • int_19h 1y ago
    It's not so much that it's slow, it's that local models are still a far cry from what SOTA cloud LLM providers offer. Depending on what you're actually doing, a local model might be good enough.
• deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
• brahyam 1y ago
  Cursor. Good price, the predictive next edit is great, good enough with big code bases and with the auto mode i dont even spend all my prem requests. I've tried VScode with copilot a couple of times and its frustrating, you have to point out individual files for edits but project wide requests are a pain. My only pain is the workflow for developing mobile apps where I have to switch back and forth between Android Studio and Xcode as vscode extensions for mobile are not so good
• reynaldi 1y ago
  VS Code with GitHub Copilot works great, though they are usually a little late to add features compared to Cursor or Windsurf. I use the 'Edit' feature the most. Windsurf I think has more features, but I find it slower compared to others. Cursor is pretty fast, and I like how it automatically suggests completion even when moving my cursor to a line of code. (Unlike others where you need to 'trigger' it by typing a text first) Honorable mention: Supermaven. It was the first and fastest AI autocomplete I used. But it's no longer updated since they were acquired by Cursor.
• Daedren 1y ago
  Considering Microsoft is closing down on the ecosystem, I'd pick VSCode with Copilot over those two. It's a matter of time before they're shuttered or their experience gets far worse.
  • jonwinstanley 1y ago
    Unlikely they'll disappear. I currently use Cursor but am happy to change if a competitor is markedly better
  • sumedh 1y ago
    MS is slow to release new features though.
• benterix 1y ago
  For daily work - neither. They basically promote the style of work where you end up with mediocre code that you don't fully understand, and with time the situation gets worse. I get much better result by asking specific question to a model that has huge context (Gemini) and analyzing the generated code carefully. That's the opposite of the style of work you get with Cursor or Windsurf. Is it less efficient? If you are paid by LoCs, sure. But for me the quality and long-term maintainability are far more important. And especially the Tab autocomplete feature was driving me nuts, being wrong roughly half of the time and basically just interrupting my flow.
  • scottmas 1y ago
    But how do you dump your entire code base into Gemini? Literally all I want is a good model with my entire code base in its context window.
    • benterix 1y ago
      Legal issues aside (you are the legal owner of that code or you checked with one), and provided it's small enough, just ask an LLM to write a script to do so . If the code base is too big, you might have luck choosing the right parts. The right balance of inclusions and exclusions can work miracles here.
    • mark_l_watson 1y ago
      I wrote a simple Python script that I run in any directory that gets the context I usually need and copies to the clipboard/paste buffer. A short custom script let's you adjust to your own needs.
    • halfjoking 1y ago
      Repomix can be run from the command line https://github.com/yamadashy/repomix https://github.com/yamadashy/repomix
    • satvikpendem 1y ago
      Cursor can index your codebase efficiently using vector embeddings rather than literally adding all your text files into context. Someone else mentioned machtiani here which seems to work similarly.
• admiralrohan 1y ago
  Using Windsurf since the start and I am satisfied. Didn't look beyond it. Focused on actually doing the coding. It's impossible to keep up with daily AI news and if something groundbreaking happens it will go viral.
• kioku 1y ago
  It might seem contrary to the current trend, but I've recently returned to using nvim as my daily driver after years with VS Code. This shift wasn't due to resource limitations but rather the unnecessary strain from agentic features consuming high amounts of resources.
• whywhywhywhy 1y ago
  Cursor is good for basic stuff but Windsurf consistently solves issues Cursor fails on even after 40+ mins of retries and prompting changes. Cursor is very lazy about looking beyond the current context or even context at all sometimes it feels it’s trying to one shot a guess without looking deeper. Bad thing about Windsurf is the plans are pretty limited and the unlimited “cascade base” feels dumb the times I used it so ultimately I use Cursor until I hit a wall then switch to Windsurf.
• warthog 1y ago
  Windsurf - the repo code awareness is much higher than Cursor.
• deafpolygon 1y ago
  I use neovim now, after getting tired of the feature creep and the constant chasing of shiny new features. AI is not useful when it does the thinking for you. It's just advanced snippets at that point. I only use LLMs to explain things or to clarify a topic that doesn't make sense right away to me. That's when it shows it's real strength. sing AI for autocomplete? I turn it off.
• weiwenhao 1y ago
  tab completed is a nightmare when it comes to non-expected code.
• n_ary 1y ago
  I agree with /u/welder. Preferably neither. Both of these are custom and runs the risk of being acquired and enshittified in future. If you are using VScode, get familiar with cline. Aider is also excellent if you don’t want to modify your IDE. Additionally, Jetbrains IDEs now also have built-in local LLMs and their auto-complete is actually fast and decent. They also have added a new chat sidepanel in recent update. The goal is NOT to change your workflow or dev env, but to integrate these tools into your existing flow, despite what the narrative says.
• emrah 1y ago
  > Neither? I'm surprised nobody has said it yet. I turned off AI autocomplete ... This represents one group of developers and is certainly valid for that group. To each their own For another group, where I belong, AI is a great companion! We can handle the noise and development speed is improved as well as the overall experience. I prefer VSCode and GitHub copilot. My opinion is this combo will eventually eat all the rest, but that's besides the point. Agent mode could be faster, sometimes it is rather slow thinking but not a big deal. This mode is all I use these days. Integration with the code base is a huge part of the great experience
• brokegrammer 1y ago
  Lately I switched to using a triple monitor setup and coding with both Cursor and Windsurf. Basically, the middle monitor has my web browser that shows the front-end I'm building. The left monitor has Cursor, and right one has Windsurf. I start coding with Cursor first because I'm more familiar with its interface, then I ask Windsurf to check if the code is good. If it is, then I commit. Once I'm done coding a feature, I'll also open VScode in the middle monitor, with Cline installed, and I will ask it to check the code again to make sure it's perfect. I think people who ask the "either or" question are missing the point. We're supposed to use all the AI tools, not one or two of them.
  • throwaway4aday 1y ago
    Why not just write a script that does this but with all of the model providers and requests multiple completions from each? Why have a whole ass editor open just for code review?
    • brokegrammer 1y ago
      It's not just an "editor". Both Windsurf and Cursor do some tricks with context so that the underlying LLM doesn't get confused. Besides, writing a script sounds hard, no need to spend the extra energy when you can simply open a tool. Anyway, that's how I code, feel free to do whatever you prefer.
    • ndyg 1y ago
      I'm finding I increasingly produce entire changesets without opening an editor: just `claude code`, or my own cobbled-together version of `claude code`, and `git diff` to preview what's happening. For me, the future of these tools isn't "inside" a text editor. If you want to poke around, my “cobbled‑together Claude Code” lives here: https://github.com/cablehead/gpt2099.nu https://github.com/cablehead/gpt2099.nu
• CuriouslyC 1y ago
  Personally, if you take the time to configure it well, I think Aider is vastly superior. You can have 4 terminals open in a grid and be running agentic coding workflows on them and 4x the throughput of someone in Cursor, whereas Cursor's UI isn't really amenable to running a bunch of instances and managing them all simultaneously. That plus Aider lets you do more complex automated Gen -> Typecheck -> Lint -> Test workflows with automated fixing.
  • findjashua 1y ago
    why can't you create separate git worktrees, and open each worktree in a separate IDE window? then you get the same functionality, no?
    • CuriouslyC 1y ago
      You can, but Aider is designed to work in a console and be interacted with through limited screen real estate, whereas cursor is designed to be interacted with through a full screen IDE. Besides the resource consumption issue, Cursor's manual prompts are hard to interact with when the window is tiny because it wants to try and pop up source file windows and display diffs in an editor pane, for instance. When we're managing 10-20 AI coding agents to get work done, the interface for each is going to need to be minimal. A lot of cursor's functionality is going to be vestigial at that point, as a tool it only makes sense as a gap-bridger for people that are still attached to manual coding.
• ibrahimsow1 1y ago
  Windsurf. The context awareness is superior compared to cursor. It falls over less and is better at retrieving relevant snippets of code. The premium plan is cheaper too, which is a nice touch.
• jfoster 1y ago
  I'm not sure the answer matters so much. My guess is that as soon as one of them gains any notable advantage over the other, the other will copy it as quickly as possible. They're using the same models under the hood.
• michelsedgh 1y ago
  best thing about cursor is $20 and u basically get unlimited requests. I know you get “slower” after a certain amount of requests but honestly you dont feel it being slow and reasoning models are taking so much to answer, so anyways you send the prompt and go doing other stuff, so the slowness i dont think it matters and basically unlimited compute u know?
• vb-8448 1y ago
  pycharm + augment code + Gemini/Claude to generate the prompt for augment code.
  • indigodaddy 1y ago
    What do you use to generate the prompt for Gemini/Claude?
• auggierose 1y ago
  How about Cursor vs. Windsurf vs. (Claude Desktop + MCP)? Haven't tried out Cursor / Windsurf yet, but I can see how I can adapt Claude Desktop to specifically my workflow with a custom MCP server.
• heymax054 1y ago
  90% of their features could fit inside a VS Code extension. There are already a few popular open-source extension doing 90%+ of what Cursor is doing - Cline, Roo Code (a fork of Cline), Kilo Code (a fork of Roo Code and something I help maintain).
  • wrasee 1y ago
    The other 10% being what differentiates them in the market :)
    • heymax054 1y ago
      Of course. Are they useful enough though for people to install an entirely new software?
      • gkbrk 1y ago
        Since installing entirely new software is just downloading Cursor.AppImage from the official website and double-clicking on it, it's not a large hassle for most users. If you're on Arch, there's even an AUR package, so it's even less steps than that.
        • bryanlarsen 1y ago
          appImage is useless for development since it only has access to globally installed development tools and environments.
          • gkbrk 1y ago
            That's not true. AppImages aren't sandboxed and they can access the rest of the system just fine. After all, they're just a regular SquashFS directory that get mounted into a /tmp mount and then executed from there.
            • bryanlarsen 1y ago
• mococa 1y ago
  Zed. It is blazing fast.
• adamgroom 1y ago
  I like cursor, the autocomplete is great most of the time, as others have said use a shortcut to disable it. The agents are a bit beta, it can’t solve bugs very often, and will write a load of garbage if you let it.
• m1117 1y ago
  Cursor is a better vibe IMO
• pk97 1y ago
  the age of swearing allegiance to a particular IDE/AI tool is over. I keep switching between Cursor and GH Copilot and for the most part they are very similar offerings. Then there's v0, Claude (for its Artifacts feature) and Cline which I use quite regularly for different requirements.
• can16358p 1y ago
  While I haven't used Windsurf, I've been using Cursor and I LOVE it: especially the inline autocomplete is like reading my mind and making the work MUCH faster. I can't say anything about Windsurf (as I haven't tried yet) but I can confidently say Cursor is great.
• singlewind 1y ago
  I prefer Zed
• quickthoughts 1y ago
  VSCode with auto complete and Gemini 2.5 Pro in a standalone chat (pick any interface that works for you, eg librechat, vertex etc). The agents-in-a-IDE experience is hella slow in my opinion. Plus its less about the actual code generation and more about how to use it effectively. I wrote a simple piece on how I use it to automate the boring parts of dev work to great effect https://quickthoughts.ca/posts/automate-smarter-maximizing-reliable-workflows-with-llm-generated-scripts https://quickthoughts.ca/posts/automate-smarter-maximizing-r...)
• Larrikin 1y ago
  I'm glad there are finally multiple options for agentic for JetBrains so I no longer have to sometimes switch over to VSCode and its various versions. Copilot at work and Junie at home. I found nothing about my VSCode excursions to be better than Sublime or IntelliJ.
  • mattew 1y ago
    I’ve only played with Junie and Aider so far and like the approach the Junie agent takes of reading the code to understand it vs the Aider approach of using the repo map to understand the codebase.
• anaisbetts 1y ago
  Whatever the answer is, if you don't like it wait a week. They are constantly going back and forth.
• pmelendez 1y ago
  I have had so much fun lately just with vanilla VS Code and Claude Code. Aider is a close second.
• TheAnkurTyagi 1y ago
  I compare them here https://www.devtoolsacademy.com/blog/cursor-vs-windsurf/ https://www.devtoolsacademy.com/blog/cursor-vs-windsurf/
• artdigital 1y ago
  I find Windsurf almost unusable. It’s hard to explain but the same models in Zed, Windsurf, Copilot and Cursor produce drastically worse code in Windsurf for whatever reason. The agent also tends to do way more stupid things at random, like wanting to call MCP tools, creating new files, then suddenly forgetting how to use tools and apologizing a dozen times I can’t really explain or prove it, but it was noticeable enough to me that I canceled my subscription and left Windsurf Maybe a prompting or setting issue? Too high temperature? Nowadays Copilot got good enough for me that it became my daily driver. I also like that I can use my Copilot subscription in different places like Zed, Aider, Xcode
  • int_19h 1y ago
    I have also observed this with Gemini 2.5 in Cursor vs Windsurf. Cline seems to be the best thing, I suspect because it doesn't do any dirty tricks with trimming down the context under the hood to keep the costs down. But for the same reason, it's not exactly fun to watch the token/$ counter ticking as it works.
• vijucat 1y ago
  If you have any intellectual property worth protecting or need to comply with HIPAA, a completely local installation of Cline or Aider or Codeium with LM Studio with Qwen or DeepSeek Coder works well. If you'd rather not bother, I don't see any option to GitHub Copilot for Business. Sure, they're slower to catch up to Cursor, but catch up they will. https://github.com/features/copilot/plans?cft=copilot_li.features_copilot https://github.com/features/copilot/plans?cft=copilot_li.fea...
  • osigurdson 1y ago
    Which entity is going to steal your IP? Cursor / Windsurf or OpenAI / Anthropic?
    • vijucat 1y ago
      Individual employees. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if companies steal ideas, either.
• osigurdson 1y ago
  I use Windsurf and vim. Windsurf is good for pure exploration using a vibe coding style but prefer to hand-code anything that I am going to keep.
• dexterlagan 1y ago
  You need none of these fancy tools if you iterate over specs instead of iterating over code. I explain it all in here: https://www.cleverthinkingsoftware.com/spec-first-development-the-missing-manual-for-building-with-ai/ https://www.cleverthinkingsoftware.com/spec-first-developmen...
  • osigurdson 1y ago
    I think a series of specs as the system instruction could help guide it. You can't just go from spec to app though, at least in my experience.
    • dexterlagan 1y ago
      From my experience Claude 3.7 seems to make less mistakes when you provide detailed specs. It saves a lot of back and forth, especially at the beginning, when you're trying to 'de-noise' the idea. I find that the best way is using a hybrid approach: going between iterating over specs to iterating over code, and once I have the MVP I update the specs one last time. I pass these specs to another session and continue working. It solves multiple problems at once: context getting full, LLM getting lost etc.
  • esafak 1y ago
    That is slow and expensive.
    • dexterlagan 1y ago
      It sounds slow and expensive, but it ended up saving me a lot of tokens and time. Especially when you want to target multiple platforms at once. For me it was liberating, absolutely night and day.
    • dexterlagan 1y ago
      Also, keep in mind that you can continue iterating over code while you keep the specs up to date. You can then give the final specs to another LLM to resume work or produce another version for a different platform or using a different framework. I do need to update the article to clarify this.
• cloudking 1y ago
  Tried them all extensively, Cursor is SOTA
• alentred 1y ago
  Recently, Augment Code. But more generally, the "leader" switches so frequently at this point, I don't commit to use either and switch more or less freely from one to another. It helps to have monthly subscriptions and free cancellation policy. I expect, or hope for, more stability in the future, but so far, from aider to Copilot, to Claude Code, to Cursor/Windsurf/Augment, almost all of them improve (or at least change) fast and seem to borrow ideas from each other too, so any leader is temporary.
• ramesh31 1y ago
  Cline beats both, and it costs nothing but direct token usage from your LLM provider. Cursor/Windsurf/et. al. are pointless middlemen.
• thesurlydev 1y ago
  I use the Windsurf Cascade plugin in JetBrains IDEs. My current flow is I rough-in the outline of what I want and have generally use the plugin to improve what I have by creating tests, performance improvements, or just making things more idiomatic. I need to invest time to add rules at both a global and project level which should make the overall experience event better.
  • leonidasv 1y ago
    I use the same setup, works like a charm.
• nlh 1y ago
  I use Cursor as my base editor + Cline as my main agentic tool. I have not tried Windsurf so alas I can't comment here but the Cursor + Cline combo works brilliantly for me: * Cursor's Cmk-K edit-inline feature (with Claude 3.7 as my base model there) works brilliantly for "I just need this one line/method fixed/improved" * Cursor's tab-complete (neé SuperMaven) is great and better than any other I've used. * Cline w/ Gemini 2.5 is absolutely the best I've tried when it comes to full agentic workflow. I throw a paragraph of idea at it and it comes up with a totally workable and working plan & implementation Fundamentally, and this may be my issue to get over and not actually real, I like that Cline is a bring-your-own-API-key system and an open source project, because their incentives are to generate the best prompt, max out the context, and get the best results (because everyone working on it wants it to work well). Cursor's incentive is to get you the best results....within their budget (of $.05 per request for the max models and within your monthly spend/usage allotment for the others). That means they're going to try to trim context or drop things or do other clever/fancy cost saving techniques for Cursor, Inc.. That's at odds with getting the best results, even if it only provides minor friction.
  • abhinavsharma 1y ago
    Totally agree on aligning with the one with clearest incentives here
  • pj_mukh 1y ago
    Clines agent work is better than Cursors own?
    • shmoogy 1y ago
      Cursor does something with truncating context to save costs on their end, you dont get the same with Cline because you're paying for each transaction - so depending on complexity I find Cline works significantly better. I still use cursor chat with agent mode though, but I've always been indecisive. Like the others said though, its nice to see how cline behaves to assist with creating your own agentic workflows.
      • 1y ago
• chironjit 1y ago
  I've been using cursor for several months. Absolutely hate Agent mode - it jumps too far ahead, and it's solutions, though valid, can overcomplicate the whole flow. It can also give you a whole bunch of code that you have to accept blindly will work, and is not super great at making good file layouts, etc. I've switched to autocomplete with the ask mode when I'm stuck
• ksymph 1y ago
  I've been flipping between the two, and overall I've found Cursor to be the better experience. Its autocomplete feels better at 'looking ahead' and figuring out what I might be doing next, while Windsurf tends to focus more on repeating whatever I've done recently. Also, while Windsurf has more project awareness, and it's better at integrating things across files, actually trying to get it to read enough context to do so intelligently is like pulling teeth. Presumably this is a resource-saving measure but it often ends up taking more tokens when it needs to be redone. Overall Cursor 'just works' better IME. They both have free trials though so there's little reason not to try both and make a decision yourself. Also, Windsurf's pricing is lower (and they have a generous free tier) so if you're on a tight budget it's a good option.
  • TiredOfLife 1y ago
    Windsurf autocomplete is free. Cursor autocomplete stops working after trial ends.
• rpmisms 1y ago
  I use Zed.
• rajasimon 1y ago
  I think zed is the answer you're looking for.
• jlouis 1y ago
  Anything which can't exfiltrate your data
• kurtis_reed 1y ago
  Can you add a poll?
• asdf6969 1y ago
  It changes too quickly for this to really matter. just pick the one you think looks and feels better to you
• mark_l_watson 1y ago
  I am retired now, out of the game, but I also suggest an alternative: running locally with open-codex, Ollama, and the qwen3 models and gemma3, and when necessary use something hosted like Gemini 2.5 Pro without an IDE. I like to strike a balance between coding from scratch and using AI.
• jzacharia 1y ago
  Neither! Neovim for most of my work and vscode w/ appropriate plugins when it's needed. If I need any LLM assistance I just run Claude Code in the terminal.
• bitbasher 1y ago
  Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one sitting here with vim enjoying myself. Letting this whole AI wave float away.
  • oakpond 1y ago
    You're not the only one. LLMs are hardly intelligent anyway.
  • matsemann 1y ago
    I don't mind having to learn these new tools, but I don't see any drawbacks in waiting a year or more until it stabilizes. Same as in the crazy times of frontend libraries when it was a new one every week. Just don't jump on anything, and learn the winner in the end. Sure, I may not be state of the art. But I can pick up whatever fast. Let someone else do all the experiments.
    • DANmode 1y ago
      What was the winner in frontend that you learned?
  • aiaiaiaiaiaiai 1y ago
    I love vim and but I am playing with this stuff too... There are a couple of neovim projects that allow this ... Advante come to mind right now. I will say this: it is a different thought process to get an llm to write code for you. And right now, the biggest issue for me is the interface. It is wrong some how, my attention not being directed to the most important part of what is going on....
• badmonster 1y ago
  i'm on cursor, performance has gone done. thinking about windsurf
• takets 1y ago
  [dead]
• esha_manideep 1y ago
  Latest cursor update where they started charging for tokens is pretty good. I don't use non-MAX mode on cursor anymore
• kotaKat 1y ago
  Neither. Do some real work instead instead of using some cancerous shitty autocomplete.
• asar 1y ago
  Personally, I've been using Cursor since day 1. Lately with Gemini 2.5 Pro. I've also started experimenting with Zed and local models served via ollama in the last couple of days. Unfortunately, without good results so far. I've created a list of self-hostable alternatives to cursor that I try to keep updated. https://selfhostedworld.com/alternative/cursor/ https://selfhostedworld.com/alternative/cursor/
• kdqed 1y ago
  [dead]
• cvquesty 1y ago
  I feel a bit out of place here, as I’m not a dev… I come from the operational side, but do all my work in Puppet code. I was using Codeium + VSC and life was wonderful. One day, though, everything updated and Codeium was gone in favor of Windsurf and things got crazy. VSC no longer understood Puppet code and didn’t seem to be able to access the language tools from the native Puppet Development Kit plugins either. The crazy part is my Vim setup has the Codeium plugins all still in place, and it works perfectly. I’m afraid if I update the plugin to a windsurf variant, it will completely “forget” about Puppet, its syntax, and everything it has “learned” from my daily workflow over the last couple years. Has anyone else seen anything similar?
• pyetro 1y ago
  The only thing preventing me to keep using Cursor/Windsurf it's the lack of sync feature. I use different machines and it's crucial to keep the same exact configuration on each of them :(
• hnlurker22 1y ago
  Regardless of which, my favorite model is ChatGPT's. I feel they're the only ones talking to customers. The other models are not as pleasant to work with as a software engineer.
• jit-it 1y ago
  Notepad++ best
• CyberCub 1y ago
  For me, it's Cursor, sometimes Augment. Gemini 2.5 + Claude 3.7 work very well
• sindhu_aireview 1y ago
  [dead]
• robch 1y ago
  I'm currently trying to use Windsurf at work since we have a license. The problem I have is that I find it's auto complete distracting from what I want to write. And when I do not know how to do a specific task, It will usually hallucinate an answer because it is not in it's training data. I mostly do staff level android tooling work which likely means it's not likely to be a common coding task.