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Most buyers should pick Windsurf.
Choose Windsurf for managing agents across local and cloud sessions, coordinating subagents, and built-in review. Choose Cursor for end-to-end coding agents with CLI, Slack, and GitHub workflows. Windsurf starts at $20/month for Pro; Cursor’s listed entry price is $8/month, but that Plus plan is limited to Grok models, so it is not a clean coding-plan comparison. Both offer free plans. On the published evidence, we lean Windsurf for coding teams; Cursor may suit connected workflows.
01Side by side
| Windsurf | Cursor | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $20/month Pro; free plan available | $8/month Plus; Grok models only |
| Free plan | Light agent quota; unlimited inline edits and Tab completions | Limited agent and Chat requests |
| Best for | Coordinating coding agents across local and cloud sessions | End-to-end coding agents with CLI, Slack, and GitHub workflows |
| Core strength | Subagents, separate PRs, local-to-cloud handoff, Devin Review | Autonomous agents and parallel cloud agent fleets |
| Learning curve | Not published | Not published |
| Integrations and models | ACP; frontier and open-source models on Pro | CLI, Slack, GitHub; multiple model providers |
| Team and seat costs | $80/month base plus $40/month per full dev seat | Teams starts at $30/user/month |
| Support | Teams lists priority support | Support terms not published |
Windsurf Choose Windsurf if
- Choose Windsurf if you need agents coordinated across local and cloud sessions.
- Choose Windsurf if subagents opening separate pull requests fit your workflow.
- Choose Windsurf if your team needs listed SSO and priority support.
Cursor Choose Cursor if
- Choose Cursor if you want agents in Slack, GitHub, and CLI.
- Choose Cursor if parallel cloud agents match your workflow.
- Choose Cursor if $30-per-user Teams pricing suits your budget.
02Pricing compared
Both products have free plans, but their paid tiers are not directly comparable. Windsurf’s pricing page lists Pro at $20/month, with full model availability, cloud agents and extra usage billed at API pricing. Max is $200/month. Teams costs $80/month plus $40/month per full developer seat; Enterprise pricing is custom.
Cursor lists Plus at $8/month, but that plan only includes Grok models. Premium is $30/month and adds cloud agents, automations, code hosting and AI code reviews; third-party models are billed separately at API list price. Super is $100/month and Ultra is $200/month. Teams starts at $30 per user per month. Both pricing pages show monthly prices and no annual discount. For coding-agent features, compare Windsurf Pro with Cursor Premium—not Windsurf Pro with Cursor Plus.
03Features and depth
Windsurf’s differentiator is agent coordination. Its product materials describe a command center for managing agents locally or in the cloud through ACP, splitting longer tasks into subagents that produce separate pull requests. Sessions can move from a laptop to the cloud while retaining context. Fast Context search finds relevant files and lines, and built-in Devin Review flags bugs and inconsistencies in diffs. Devin Fusion pairs a lead model with a cheaper sidekick model.
Cursor is framed around end-to-end coding workflows. Its homepage says agents can plan, write, test and demo features, while cloud agents can work in parallel for hours or days. Developers can choose among models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, SpaceXAI and Cursor’s Composer, subject to plan limits and separate API charges. Cursor also lists a CLI, Slack workflows for opening or reviewing pull requests, and GitHub pull-request review. Choose Windsurf for orchestration and local-to-cloud handoffs; choose Cursor if CLI, Slack and GitHub workflows matter more.
04Ease of use and learning curve
The published information doesn’t establish that either product is easier to learn, so we wouldn’t call a clear usability winner. The better fit depends on how your team already works. Windsurf centers on coordinating agents, subagents and sessions across local and cloud environments; teams adopting that model will need to account for those moving parts.
Cursor offers several entry points: its desktop app, CLI, Slack and GitHub workflows. That breadth may fit teams that want to hand off work through existing tools, but it also means choosing which workflow and plan limits apply. Both have free plans, so teams can check their fit before paying. The free tiers are limited, though, and don’t establish how either product will feel at your team’s normal usage level.
Questions people ask
Which is cheaper, Windsurf or Cursor?
Cursor lists a lower entry price: Plus costs $8/month, compared with Windsurf Pro at $20/month. But Cursor Plus only includes Grok models, while coding features such as cloud agents and AI code reviews are listed under Premium at $30/month. For those features, Windsurf Pro costs less on the listed monthly prices.
Which is better for a team?
Windsurf Teams costs $80/month plus $40/month per full developer seat and supports up to 200 users, according to its pricing details. Cursor Teams starts at $30 per user per month and lists centralized administration, SSO and team-wide privacy settings. The right choice depends on seats, workflow and required controls.
Do Windsurf and Cursor have free plans?
Yes. Both list a free plan. Windsurf’s free tier includes a light agent quota, limited model availability, unlimited inline edits and unlimited Tab completions. Cursor’s free tier lists limited agent and Chat requests. Neither free-plan description promises the full paid feature set.
Can Windsurf move a coding session between local and cloud?
Windsurf’s product information says a running session can move between a laptop and the cloud without losing context. Cursor’s published materials describe cloud agents working in parallel, but don’t specify an equivalent local-to-cloud handoff. We’d treat that as a documented Windsurf distinction, not a claim that Cursor cannot do it.