Cursor vs Devin Desktop
Pricing
Cursor: Free tier, Plus $8/mo (Grok models only), Premium $30/mo, all excl. VAT
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Limited agent and chat requests |
| Plus | $8/mo excl. VAT | Introductory plan, Grok models only, shared usage pool with Grok |
| Premium | $30/mo excl. VAT | 4x Plus usage, cloud agents, AI code reviews, third-party models at API price |
| Super | $100/mo excl. VAT | 15x Plus usage, priority model access at peak times |
| Ultra | $200/mo excl. VAT | 50x Plus usage, earliest access to new products and models |
Prices checked on the vendor's page
Devin Desktop: Free tier, Pro $20/mo, Max $200/mo
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1 member, light agent quota, limited models |
| Pro | $20/mo | 1 member, higher quotas, frontier and open-source models |
| Max | $200/mo | 1 member, significantly higher quotas than Pro |
| Teams | $80/mo plus $40 per seat | Up to 200 users, own quota per full seat |
Prices checked on the vendor's page
Description
Cursor: AI code editor (VS Code fork) that lets you talk to your codebase, autocomplete across files, and refactor with a prompt
Devin Desktop: AI IDE (formerly Windsurf) with an agent mode (Cascade) and a command center for running local and cloud coding agents across your project
Best for
Cursor: Solo developers who want an AI code editor; paid plans also bundle Grok and X Premium features.
Devin Desktop: Solo developers who want an AI editor that also runs local and cloud coding agents
Pros
- Feels like VS Code: your extensions and shortcuts just work
- Tab completions predict multi-line changes, not just single words
- Can reference your entire codebase when answering questions
- Cascade agent mode handles multi-file changes without hand-holding
- Agent Command Center lets you start, track and review several local and cloud agents from one board
- Free tier with unlimited Tab completions and inline edits, enough to evaluate before paying
Cons
- Free tier runs out fast: expect to hit the paywall within a week of real use
- Sometimes confidently suggests wrong code, especially for less popular libraries
- Plans are bundled with Grok and X Premium since 2026: the $8 Plus plan allows Grok models only, and third-party models are billed separately by usage
- Had a messy 2025: acquisition talks with OpenAI fell through, and talent split between Google and Cognition
- Smaller community means fewer tutorials and troubleshooting resources
- Context window can hit limits on larger projects
Details
If you already use VS Code, Cursor is the shortest path to having AI actually understand your project. It does more than autocomplete: you can highlight code and ask “why is this breaking?” or tell it “add error handling to all API routes” and watch it edit multiple files.
The tab completions are the killer feature. They predict what you are about to type based on what you just did, and they are eerily good at continuing patterns. The free tier gives you a taste, but its agent and chat requests are limited and run out quickly. Since 2026 the paid plans are shared with Grok and X Premium: Plus at $8 a month allows Grok models only, Premium at $30 is the first plan with cloud agents and third-party models (billed separately by usage), and Super and Ultra at $100 and $200 add more usage. Keep an eye on your usage if you are doing heavy agent work. Anysphere, the company that makes Cursor, became part of SpaceX when SpaceX completed its acquisition on 14 August 2026.
Devin Desktop is the new name for Windsurf, the AI IDE that started as Codeium’s editor. It is now made by Cognition, the company behind the Devin coding agent. It still combines regular code completion with Cascade, an agent mode that can plan out multi-step tasks and execute them across your project. Tell it “add user authentication to this app” and it will create files, install packages, and wire things up.
The rename put an Agent Command Center at the front: a board where you run and review local and cloud agents, including Cascade, Codex and Claude Agent, while the full IDE stays available. Pro costs $20/mo and adds higher usage quotas, frontier models and Devin Cloud agents. The company had a turbulent 2025, when a $3B acquisition by OpenAI fell apart and talent ended up split between Google and Cognition, but the product now has a clear owner. If you want a capable AI IDE that can also manage several coding agents at once, it is worth trying.
Cursor verified
Devin Desktop verified
