Cursor vs Devin Desktop (Formerly Windsurf) vs VS Code + GitHub Copilot: AI Coding Editors Compared

A year ago this was a simple three-way race between AI code editors. In 2026 all three products have changed shape. Cursor is now owned by SpaceX and sells plans bundled with Grok and X features. Windsurf has been renamed Devin Desktop and is built around a command center for running several coding agents at once. GitHub Copilot has moved to credit-based billing and added its own desktop app, while still working inside VS Code.

This guide compares what each one is today, what it costs, and who it suits. All three run on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Quick Verdict

• Choose Cursor if you want a polished AI-first editor with fast Tab completions, cloud agents, and Slack and GitHub integrations, and you're comfortable with plans built around Grok models plus pay-as-you-go access to other providers.
• Choose Devin Desktop if you want one app to run and review many agents (its own, Codex, Claude Agent, and others) alongside a full IDE, with frontier models from several providers included in a $20 plan.
• Choose VS Code + GitHub Copilot if you want to keep your current editor and extensions, your team lives on GitHub, and you want the cheapest paid entry point ($10/month).

What Changed Since 2025

• Windsurf is now Devin Desktop. Windsurf.com redirects to Devin's site, and its FAQ says "Devin Desktop is the new name for Windsurf". Existing users get it as an over-the-air update, and plans, settings, and extensions carry over. The JetBrains plugin is still called Windsurf for JetBrains.
• Cursor is part of SpaceX. Cursor's blog announced on August 14, 2026 that SpaceX completed its acquisition. Cursor's pricing page now bundles Cursor, Grok, and X subscription features into one set of plans.
• Copilot bills in GitHub AI Credits. Chat, agent mode, code review, the cloud agent, and Copilot CLI all draw from a monthly credit allowance, and GitHub added a Copilot desktop app for managing agent work.

Feature Comparison

Cursor

Cursor is still the editor most people mean when they say "AI IDE". It's a VS Code-based editor with its own Tab autocomplete, which suggests multi-line edits, jumps to the next place you'll probably edit, and proposes changes in other files. The Agent can plan and build features inside your repo, and cloud agents run tasks in parallel on their own machines while you keep working. Cursor also shows up outside the editor: you can tag it in Slack, have it review pull requests in GitHub, or run it from the terminal with the Cursor CLI. Project rules live in .cursor/rules or AGENTS.md, and it connects to MCP servers.

The bigger change is commercial. Since the SpaceX acquisition, Cursor's pricing is a single ladder shared with Grok and X:

• Free ($0): limited agent and chat requests.
• Plus ($8/month): a shared usage pool, but only Grok models are available in Cursor on this plan.
• Premium ($30/month): 4x Plus usage, cloud agents and automations, code hosting through Origin, Bugbot AI code reviews, and third-party models at API list price.
• Super ($100/month) and Ultra ($200/month): 15x and 50x Plus usage.
• Teams: from $30 per user per month.

The usage pool is shared across Cursor and Grok products and refreshes weekly. Third-party models such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini are not covered by the allowance; Cursor bills them separately at API list price. If you mostly want Claude or GPT models, budget for that usage on top of the plan.

Choose Cursor if you want the most refined in-editor AI experience, you like Grok models or don't mind paying per use for others, and Slack and GitHub integration matter to your team.

Devin Desktop (Formerly Windsurf)

Devin Desktop is Windsurf after Cognition, the company behind the Devin agent, renamed and reworked it. It keeps the full IDE (syntax highlighting, autocomplete, debugging, extensions), but the front of the app is now an Agent Command Center: Spaces and a Kanban-style board for starting, tracking, and reviewing many agent sessions at once.

Agents can run locally (Devin Local is the default for new tabs, with the older Cascade agent still available) or in the cloud through Devin Cloud on paid plans. It also supports the Agent Client Protocol, so you can run other agents, such as Codex, Claude Agent, and OpenCode, from the same window. Rules, AGENTS.md, Skills, and Workflows shape how agents behave, and MCP servers connect it to tools like Slack, Linear, Figma, and Sentry. Windsurf's auto-generated Memories now apply only to the legacy Cascade agent; Devin suggests migrating them to Skills.

Pricing is simpler than Cursor's:

• Free ($0): a light agent quota, limited models, and unlimited Tab completions and inline edits.
• Pro ($20/month): frontier models from OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, and SpaceXAI, plus open-source models, and access to Devin Cloud.
• Max ($200/month): much higher quotas.
• Teams: $80/month for the team plan plus $40/month per full developer seat, up to 200 users.

Quotas refresh daily and weekly, and you can buy extra usage at API pricing.

Choose Devin Desktop if you already run several coding agents and want one place to dispatch and review them, or you want multi-provider models in a single $20 plan.

VS Code + GitHub Copilot

VS Code is free, and GitHub Copilot brings inline suggestions, chat, and agent mode into it. The appeal is that you keep the editor, extensions, and settings you already know, and Copilot works in Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Eclipse, and Xcode too.

Copilot now reaches well beyond autocomplete. The Copilot cloud agent takes an issue, researches and writes the code, and can open a pull request. Copilot code review reviews pull requests on GitHub and diffs in your editor. Copilot CLI works from the terminal (even on the free plan), and the new GitHub Copilot app is a desktop workspace for macOS, Windows, and Linux that manages agent sessions from issue to merge, on any Copilot plan or with your own key. Pro+ and Max can also delegate tasks to third-party agents like Claude and OpenAI Codex (in preview).

Plans:

• Free ($0): 2,000 inline suggestions per month and limited chat and agent usage.
• Pro ($10/month): unlimited inline suggestions, the cloud agent, code review, and a monthly GitHub AI Credits allowance.
• Pro+ ($39/month) and Max ($100/month): larger credit allowances and third-party agents.

Chat, agent mode, code review, the cloud agent, and Copilot CLI all consume GitHub AI Credits, and the cost varies by model, so heavy agent users should watch their balance. You can buy more credits on paid plans.

Choose VS Code + Copilot if you don't want to switch editors, your work already runs through GitHub issues and pull requests, or you want the lowest-cost paid plan.

Which One Should You Choose?

• Solo developers who want the best editing feel: Cursor, if its Grok-centric plans suit you.
• Developers juggling several agents: Devin Desktop, for its command center and support for third-party agents.
• Teams standardized on GitHub: VS Code + Copilot, for issue-to-PR agents and reviews inside GitHub.
• Budget-conscious users: Copilot Pro at $10/month, or the free tiers of all three to start.
• Terminal-first developers: all three now have a CLI. For dedicated agent tools, see our Conductor vs Codex and Claude Code comparison.

If you're weighing lighter editors, our Zed alternatives guide compares VS Code, Cursor, Sublime Text, and Nova.

Final Verdict

Cursor is still the most cohesive AI-first editor, but its plans now revolve around Grok, and other providers' models cost extra. Devin Desktop has turned Windsurf into a hub for managing many agents, and its $20 Pro plan includes models from several providers. VS Code + Copilot is the safest choice if you want to keep your editor and your GitHub workflow, with the cheapest paid plan of the three.

All three have free tiers, so the best test is to run the same small task in two of them and compare how much you had to fix and how quickly your usage allowance went down.

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Note: First published in October 2025 and updated in October 2026. Features and prices are current as of October 2026 and can change; verify them on each official site before buying.