Windsurf is now Devin Desktop, Cursor belongs to SpaceX, and both cost $20 for Pro. How their agents, models, free plans and pricing ladders differ.
Two years ago this was a fight between two startups selling nearly identical VS Code forks. In late 2026 both have new owners and new names for their best ideas. Cursor belongs to SpaceX and builds its own Composer models. Windsurf belongs to Cognition and is now called Devin Desktop, with the original Cascade agent retired. Both still cost $20 a month for Pro, which is where the similarity ends.
Cursor's maker, Anysphere, was bought by SpaceX for $60 billion in stock, a deal completed on August 14, 2026. Cursor now sits in SpaceXAI, the division that also makes Grok, and Grok models appear in its plans next to models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. The product kept shipping through the deal: Projects, self-hosted machines and new review bots all arrived in September.
Windsurf took a longer road. It began as Codeium's editor, Google hired its chief executive in July 2025, and Cognition bought the rest of the company days later. On June 2, 2026 Cognition renamed it Devin Desktop and made the Agent Command Center, a board of every agent you have running, its default view. Cognition raised $2 billion at a $48 billion valuation in September, so neither editor is short of money.
Editing still feels similar in both. Each is a full VS Code fork with autocomplete, inline edits, the usual file tree, debugger and command palette, and most extensions work in either.
| Cursor | Windsurf (Devin Desktop) | |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Hobby: limited agent requests, Composer access | Free: unlimited Tab and inline edits, light agent quota, limited models |
| Pro | $20 a month, $16 billed yearly | $20 a month |
| Middle tier | Pro+ $60, $48 yearly | None |
| Top individual tier | Ultra $200, $160 yearly | Max $200 |
| Teams | $40 per user a month, $32 yearly; Premium $120 | $80 a month plus $40 per full seat, up to 200 users |
| Beyond the allowance | On-demand usage billed afterwards | Extra usage at API prices |
| Own model | Composer 2.5 | SWE-2, free on Pro through October 16, 2026 |
Prices from Cursor's and Devin's pricing pages, checked September 30 and October 1, 2026.
The ladders differ in the middle. A Cursor user who outgrows Pro can step to Pro+ at $60, which Cursor's own FAQ recommends for people who use agents daily. A Devin Desktop user has no such step: past Pro, the choice is buying extra usage at API prices or paying $200 for Max, described only as significantly higher quotas. For small teams, Cursor's per-user price is simpler; Devin Desktop's base fee makes a two-person team cost $160 a month.
Both editors now treat agents as the main event, with different ideas of what that means. Cursor 3 introduced the Agents Window in April 2026 for local and cloud agents, and Projects, added in September, let a coordinator agent hand work to many agents over days or weeks. Cursor also sells Bugbot for code review, a CLI, and Rollouts and Security Review bots for Teams and Enterprise.
Devin Desktop's answer is orchestration across vendors. Its Agent Command Center shows every session in Running, Waiting for review and Done columns, Spaces let agents share context and Git worktrees, and the Agent Client Protocol brings OpenAI's Codex, Anthropic's Claude Agent and OpenCode onto the same board as Cognition's own Devin Local. Devin Cloud agents, sold separately as Devin, are included from Pro, and agents can run on remote machines over SSH since September.
If you mostly want one strong agent inside the editor, Cursor's is more mature. If you already juggle several agents from different companies, Devin Desktop is the only editor built around managing them together.
Cursor offers its own Composer 2.5 alongside Grok 4.7, Claude Opus 5.5, GPT-5.6 Sol and Gemini 3.1 Pro, and Composer is available even on the free Hobby plan. Owning a competitive model reduces Cursor's dependence on outside providers, which matters more now that its parent also makes Grok.
Devin Desktop's Pro plan includes models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and SpaceXAI plus open-source ones, and Cognition's SWE-2, released in September 2026, is free on Pro until October 16. Since September 29 you can also sign in with ChatGPT and bill GPT model requests to a ChatGPT Plus or Pro plan, an unusual way to stretch the Devin quota if you already pay OpenAI.
For trying the editors without paying, Devin Desktop is more generous where it counts for everyday coding: unlimited Tab completions and inline edits, with a light quota for agent work and a limited model list. Cursor's Hobby plan gives a limited number of agent requests and access to Composer, and keeps unlimited Tab completions for paid plans. Either free plan is enough to decide whether you like the editor before the $20 question arrives.
| If you | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Want the safest default AI editor | Cursor | Broader plans, Composer, the larger community |
| Use agents all day on one project | Cursor | Pro+ at $60 and Projects for long work |
| Run agents from several companies at once | Windsurf | One board for Devin, Codex, Claude Agent and OpenCode |
| Want Devin Cloud with your editor | Windsurf | Included from Pro |
| Need free autocomplete | Windsurf | Unlimited Tab on the free plan |
| Relied on Cascade or the JetBrains plugin | Neither as before | Cascade is gone and the plugin is in maintenance mode |
The verdict stays with Cursor. It has the fuller pricing ladder, its own models, the most active development and a larger community to learn from; our Cursor review comes from building this site in it. Windsurf is the right pick for developers who want to manage many agents in one place, and its free plan is the better way to get unlimited autocomplete without paying. For terminal-first work, compare both with Claude Code vs Cursor; for a cheaper extension in stock VS Code, look at GitHub Copilot, and for a free open-source agent that runs on any model, Cline.
For most developers, no. Cursor has the broader plan ladder, its own Composer models, Projects for long multi-agent work and the larger user community. Windsurf, now called Devin Desktop, is better if you want one board for many agents, including Devin Cloud, Codex and Claude agents, or a free plan with unlimited Tab completions.
Pro costs $20 a month on both, and Cursor drops to $16 a month billed yearly. Above that they split: Cursor has Pro+ at $60 and Ultra at $200, while Devin Desktop jumps straight to Max at $200. For teams, Cursor charges $40 per user a month and Devin Desktop $80 a month plus $40 per full seat.
Cognition, maker of the Devin agent, bought Windsurf in July 2025 and renamed the editor Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026. Plans and settings carried over, windsurf.com now redirects to devin.ai, and on September 8, 2026 the original Cascade agent was removed in favor of Devin Local.
For autocomplete, Windsurf: Devin Desktop's free plan includes unlimited Tab completions and inline edits plus a light agent quota. Cursor's free Hobby plan includes limited agent requests and access to its Composer model, with unlimited Tab completions reserved for paid plans.
SpaceX owns Cursor: it completed a $60 billion stock purchase of Anysphere on August 14, 2026 and placed Cursor in its SpaceXAI division alongside Grok. Cognition owns Windsurf and raised $2 billion at a $48 billion valuation in September 2026.
Yes. Both are VS Code forks, so most extensions, keybindings and settings carry over, and Cursor offers a one-click import from VS Code on first launch. The bigger adjustment is the agent workflow, since Cursor centers on its Agents Window and Projects while Devin Desktop opens on its Agent Command Center board.