Hey Warrior,

There's a new AI coding app called Windsurf that's been getting really popular lately.

A lot of people have been saying it's better than Cursor. So I wanted to test it and find out for myself.

This is going to be an honest review on the pros and cons of Windsurf and how it compares to Cursor.

If you prefer watching over reading, check out this video:

Here's what we'll cover today:

• Why Windsurf's UI is a lot better for beginners

• Comparing Windsurf and Cursor in code quality

• How pricing differs

Read time: 5 minutes

💡 Why Windsurf's UI is a lot better for beginners

The most interesting differences I found are in UI.

Both applications are VScode forks, so they look pretty similar. They are both IDEs, and they both have integrated AI features.

But some of the features are notably different and I’ll be going into those differences now.

When you open up Windsurf's Cascade (which is the equivalent to Cursors' Composer and AI chat feature) for the first time, you'll see this write vs chat mode toggle.

I found this really interesting because I often find myself in a situation where I just want to use the AI to fill some knowledge gaps and not suggest any code. This toggle between writing and chatting is actually really handy.

But the biggest difference between the two is how Windsurf handles context and writing your code.

In Cursor, you usually have to add the context manually or tag the codebase, but Windsurf will automatically analyze the codebase and choose the right file to work on. Its step-by-step workflow is pretty cool and intuitive.

Now, of course, Cursor has recently launched the agent feature, which is a direct response to this. However, I feel like Windsurf's agent feature is a bit easier to use.

For example, the way the terminal integrates in Windsurf is a lot more intuitive than in Cursor Agent.

Overall, the Windsurf UI feels easier and more intuitive to use, especially for coding beginners.

👨‍💻 Comparing Windsurf and Cursor in code quality

Now let's compare code quality.

Both tools of course use the same underlying models, so the outputted code quality should be rather similar. But in my tests, I've found that Cursor tends to produce higher quality results.

For example, when I used CopyCoder prompts to clone an app quickly, Cursor produced a much more complete app in less time. All of the additional pages were very complete and functioned without any errors.

Whereas when I was doing the same in Windsurf, it got me several errors, and it took me a few iterations to get to a less complete version.

💰 How pricing differs

Both Cursor and Windsurf have a free plan.

As part of the free plan, you get several slow premium requests (this means you get to use premium models, but slower).

But if you want to get fast and good results (by using premium models like Claude Sonnet), you'll need to upgrade to the Pro plans, which I highly recommend if you want to write good quality code.

Cursor's Pro plan is $20 per month and gives you 500 fast premium requests.

Windsurf's Pro plan is now $15 per month and also gives you 500 fast premium requests.

🗒️ Conclusion

I think Windsurf is actually the better IDE for beginners.

If I were to start out coding today, Windsurf would be a great choice. You don't need to think about context much, and the Windsurf agent will guide you through the code, helping you write everything.

Cursor by contrast has a bit of a steeper learning curve.

But if you're aiming to write production-ready code, e.g. applications that have a working backend, payments integration, and authentication, the more fine-grained control that you get in Cursor will result in higher quality code.

For professional purposes, I would currently still choose Cursor over Windsurf.

Thanks for reading!

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Moritz

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