THE COMPARISON / A CLOSER LOOK

Cursor vs Windsurf

Compare the listed plans, useful capabilities, and practical tradeoffs.

Prices and features reflect editorial records. Check vendor terms before you buy; documentary checks do not imply hands-on testing.

Cursor

🔴Developer

AI coding assistants

Cursor is an AI-focused code editor that helps teams edit, explain, and navigate software projects with an AI assistant.

SOURCE-CHECK COVERAGE

No scoped source-check record shown. Check current pricing and vendor terms before buying.

Starting Price

Hobby: $0; Pro: $20/month; Pro+: $60/month; Ultra: $200/month; Teams: $40/user/month; Enterprise: Custom

Windsurf

🔴Developer

AI coding assistants

Agentic AI coding IDE for developers who want autocomplete, chat, codebase context, and multi-file editing workflows.

SOURCE-CHECK COVERAGE

No scoped source-check record shown. Check current pricing and vendor terms before buying.

Starting Price

Free

Feature Comparison

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FeatureCursorWindsurf
CategoryAI coding assistantsAI coding assistants
Pricing PlansPlan details unavailable4 listed plans
Starting PriceHobby: $0; Pro: $20/month; Pro+: $60/month; Ultra: $200/month; Teams: $40/user/month; Enterprise: CustomFree
Key Features
  • • AI code editor with agent requests and Tab completions
  • • Cloud agents plus terminal, Slack, and GitHub workflows
  • • MCPs, skills, hooks, and frontier model access on paid plans
  • • AI-native code editor with chat and autocomplete
  • • Cascade agent for multi-file changes and project context
  • • Codebase search and reasoning across repositories

Cursor - Pros & Cons

Pros

  • ✓Keeps AI assistance close to code, diagnostics, and diffs
  • ✓Repository context is more useful than pasting isolated snippets into chat
  • ✓MCP support extends the agent with external tools
  • ✓Strong fit for feature work, refactors, and codebase onboarding

Cons

  • ✗Generated multi-file changes still require careful review and tests
  • ✗Large repositories can exceed practical context limits
  • ✗Teams must assess source-code privacy and tool permissions
  • ✗Pricing and current plan limits aren't published; check the vendor's site for current plans

Windsurf - Pros & Cons

Pros

  • ✓Good fit for developers who want agentic edits inside an IDE rather than a separate chat window
  • ✓Cascade can handle broader refactors than simple autocomplete when scoped carefully
  • ✓Free tier makes side-by-side testing against Cursor and GitHub Copilot easy
  • ✓Useful for full-stack projects where codebase context matters

Cons

  • ✗Agentic edits still require review, tests, and version-control discipline
  • ✗Credit systems and model availability can be confusing for teams
  • ✗Developers already standardized on VS Code plus Copilot may resist switching editors
  • ✗Large legacy repositories can expose context and indexing limitations

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🔒 Security & Compliance Comparison

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Security FeatureCursorWindsurf
SOC2—✅ Yes
GDPR—✅ Yes
HIPAA——
SSO—✅ Yes
Self-Hosted—✅ Yes
On-Prem—✅ Yes
RBAC—✅ Yes
Audit Log—✅ Yes
Open Source—❌ No
API Key Auth—✅ Yes
Encryption at Rest—✅ Yes
Encryption in Transit—✅ Yes
Data Residency—US, EU
Data Retention—configurable
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