Windsurf

What is Windsurf used for?

Windsurf is a standalone AI code editor built by Codeium, and it is the most direct competitor to Cursor. Like Cursor, it is a VS Code fork rebuilt around AI — so you keep your extensions, your themes, and your muscle memory, but gain a deeply integrated AI coding assistant. Windsurf's defining feature is Cascade, an agentic system that does not just suggest code but takes multi-step actions across your entire codebase autonomously.

Cascade: When the AI Actually Does the Work

Most AI coding tools work like a smart autocomplete — you write, the AI suggests, you accept or reject. Cascade works differently. You describe a goal — "Add user authentication to this Express app and update all the relevant routes" — and Cascade reads the relevant files, plans what needs to change, makes the edits across multiple files, and runs the application to check if it worked. If there is an error, it reads the error and fixes it without you having to intervene. This agentic loop is what distinguishes Windsurf from a standard coding assistant and puts it in the same conversation as Cursor's Composer feature.

Windsurf vs. Cursor — which should you use?

Both are excellent and the gap is closing fast. Cursor has a longer track record and a larger community of power users sharing prompting techniques. Windsurf has a stronger free tier and Cascade is impressively capable. If you are starting fresh, try both free tiers side by side and see which workflow feels more natural. At $15 a month for the paid plan, Windsurf is marginally cheaper than Cursor's $20 Pro plan and worth serious consideration.