Cursor vs Windsurf (now Devin Desktop): license, pricing and features compared (October 2026)
Cursor and Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) are both listed under AI coding agents. Pricing model: Cursor is "Free tier + paid plans (per its pricing note)"; Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) is "Freemium". Cursor is the better fit for: teams that want cloud agents with shared, scriptable environments. Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) is the better fit for: developers already using Windsurf who want the same editor under the Devin brand. Facts were read from vendor and GitHub pages on Oct 25, 2026 and are Reported; what we ran ourselves is under What we measured.
Our pick: Pick Cursor for teams that want cloud agents with shared, scriptable environments; pick Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) for developers already using Windsurf who want the same editor under the Devin brand. No overall winner: we have not benchmarked them against each other. Updated (America/Chicago).
Evidence: Reported for both tools. The facts in the tables were read from each vendor's own pages and the public GitHub API on 2026-10-25 (America/Chicago). The What we measured section says what we have not run yet; anything we could not confirm is marked as not captured.
Anysphere
Reported
Worth a look if you run agents on several repos or want one place for editor, cloud agents and Git hosting; the October changes are mostly for teams.
Cognition (Devin)
Reported
Windsurf was renamed Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026: a full IDE with an Agent Command Center for managing local and cloud coding agents.
Side by side, from what we recorded
Each row compares one recorded fact for both tools. Rows are not weighted and nothing is added up into a score; the note under each row says what the marker means.
Evidence
Reported for CursorReported for Windsurf (now Devin Desktop)Tested = we ran it (smoke test); Reported = we read official sources
Release date
Oct 16, 2026 (Cursor is ahead on this row) for CursorJun 2, 2026 for Windsurf (now Devin Desktop)Newer date only; says nothing about quality
Pricing we could verify
Verified from official page for CursorVerified from official page for Windsurf (now Devin Desktop)About our evidence only, not about the price
Steps in our setup guide
3 for Cursor2 for Windsurf (now Devin Desktop)Counts our guide's steps, not difficulty
Sources we cite
4 for Cursor4 for Windsurf (now Devin Desktop)How much we had to read; more is not better
A list of recorded differences, not a quality score or a ranking. We have not benchmarked these tools against each other; the smoke-test row links each tool's own log. How we label evidence.
What we measured
We have not run either Cursor or Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) ourselves yet, so nothing on this page is Tested; it is Reported from vendor and GitHub pages. Below is what we will run, so the comparison can rest on our own results.
| Test | Cursor | Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) |
|---|---|---|
| Hands-on test log (install and a real task) | Not tested yet. What we will run: the same failing-unit-test fix in a fresh repository, scored by whether the tests pass, with wall time and tool calls. | Not tested yet. What we will run: the same failing-unit-test fix in a fresh repository, scored by whether the tests pass, with wall time and tool calls. |
How we test and label results: methodology. All test logs: test hub.
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Cursor vs Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) at a glance
Cursor and Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) are both listed under AI coding agents. Agentic Weekly's Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) page names Cursor as an alternative. Cursor: Worth a look if you run agents on several repos or want one place for editor, cloud agents and Git hosting; the October changes are mostly for teams. Windsurf (now Devin Desktop): Windsurf was renamed Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026: a full IDE with an Agent Command Center for managing local and cloud coding agents.
| Feature | Cursor | Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Anysphere | Cognition (Devin) |
| Listed under | AI coding agents, Vibe coding | AI coding agents, Vibe coding |
| License | Proprietary hosted product | Proprietary (no open-source license stated) |
| Pricing model | Free tier + paid plans (per its pricing note) | Freemium |
| Free tier | Appears in the plan list in the Paid plans row | Free: $0, light agent quota, limited models, unlimited inline edits and Tab completions |
| Paid plans | Cursor's pricing page (fetched Oct 25, 2026) lists Free $0, Plus $8/month (Grok models only, shared usage pool), Premium $30/month (4x Plus usage, cloud agents and automations, code hosting and AI code reviews), Super $100/month (15x Plus), Ultra $200/month (50x Plus), Teams from $30 per user per month, and custom Enterprise pricing. Third-party model usage is billed separately by usage. | Pro $20/month, Max $200/month, Teams $80/month plus $40/month per full dev seat, Enterprise custom |
| Platforms | Not captured on the pages we read | macOS, Windows and Linux (FAQ lists Devin.app, Devin.exe and a Linux binary); download page we read offered macOS |
| Latest release we saw | Not captured on the pages we read | Jun 2, 2026 |
| Evidence | Reported from vendor pages | Reported from vendor pages |
How Cursor and Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) differ
- Pricing model: Cursor is "Free tier + paid plans (per its pricing note)"; Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) is "Freemium".
- Plans and prices differ and are not like-for-like (credits, seats and usage limits vary), so we do not name a cheaper tool. The Paid plans row above quotes each vendor's plan list as read on Oct 25, 2026.
Neither tool publishes open-source code under a standard license, so you are choosing between hosted products.
Which should you pick?
- Pick Cursor if: teams that want cloud agents with shared, scriptable environments; developers who like an editor-first workflow with an agent built in. Skip it if: you work only in a terminal and want a lightweight open-source agent.
- Pick Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) if: developers already using Windsurf who want the same editor under the Devin brand; people who want one place to manage local and cloud coding agents. Skip it if: you want a fully open-source editor (it is proprietary; see Zed or Kilo).
Strengths and limits
| Feature | Cursor | Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) |
|---|---|---|
| Strengths | Frequent, dated changelog entries; Cloud agents, CLI and Git hosting from one vendor; Environments API lets teams automate agent setups | Free tier with unlimited Tab completions and inline edits; Plans carried over from Windsurf without price changes, per the vendor FAQ; Cloud agent access included from Pro |
| Limits | Premium and above list third-party models billed separately at API list price, so total cost is hard to predict; The Environments API is beta; Origin marketplace and canvases are most useful to teams, less to solo users | The product was renamed in June 2026, so older guides and MDM allowlists that say Windsurf are out of date; Free-tier agent quota is described only as light; Max plan quota is described only as significantly higher, with no number |
What we did not verify
- Cursor: Whether the 4x, 15x and 50x usage multipliers fit your workload (vendor figures, not tested).
- Windsurf (now Devin Desktop): Quota sizes per plan (vendor gives none).
- Output quality, speed and reliability beyond the smoke tests listed under What we measured: not compared.
Latest news briefs on Cursor and Windsurf (now Devin Desktop)
- Superset is now Paradev: parallel coding-agent app ships desktop v2.0.0 and an $11.5M seed (Reported; first seen 2026-10-26 17:05 UTC)
- PaperPilot: an open-source Rust PDF toolkit that runs as an MCP server, CLI and in-browser WASM (Reported; first seen 2026-10-26 12:06 UTC)
FAQ
Is Cursor or Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) open source?
Cursor: Proprietary hosted product. Windsurf (now Devin Desktop): Proprietary (no open-source license stated). Licenses come from each project's GitHub repository or the vendor's own pages, read Oct 25, 2026; read the license text itself before redistributing or building a competing service.
Does Cursor or Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) have a free plan?
Cursor: its plan list is quoted in the Paid plans row above. Windsurf (now Devin Desktop): Free: $0, light agent quota, limited models, unlimited inline edits and Tab completions. Checked Oct 25, 2026; prices and limits change, so confirm on each vendor's page.
What is the main difference between Cursor and Windsurf (now Devin Desktop)?
Pricing model: Cursor is "Free tier + paid plans (per its pricing note)"; Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) is "Freemium". Plans and prices differ and are not like-for-like (credits, seats and usage limits vary), so we do not name a cheaper tool. The Paid plans row above quotes each vendor's plan list as read on Oct 25, 2026.
Sources
- Cursor changelog (fetched 2026-10-25)
- Cursor download page (fetched 2026-10-25)
- Cursor docs (fetched 2026-10-25)
- Cursor pricing (fetched 2026-10-25)
- Windsurf is now Devin Desktop (Cognition blog, June 2, 2026) (fetched 2026-10-25)
- Devin Desktop FAQ (fetched 2026-10-25)
- Devin plans and pricing (fetched 2026-10-25)
- Devin Desktop (fetched 2026-10-25)
Related
Page history
- : First published. Facts read from vendor pages and the GitHub API on 2026-10-25.
Markdown version for agents: /compare/cursor-vs-windsurf.md
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