Cursor vs Windsurf (Devin Desktop)
The two agent-first IDEs score identically — so what actually separates them? Scores from the RXed AI Periodic Table v1.0 — identical 20-element scale, deterministic overall. How we audit →
At a glance
Scope = elements of the AI stack in the tool’s stated scope (dashed = honestly out of scope, never a penalty). Quality = how well it scores on what it covers. No single number — both axes, always.
The verdict
Both land at Scope 17/20 · Quality 8/10 — identical on both axes, and both score Ag 9 — these are the two most agent-forward IDEs money can buy. The separation is in the fine print. Cursor edges ahead on raw model surface (Lg 9 vs 8.5, Pr 8 vs 7.5) and ships the larger ecosystem, but its sticker price is a floor on a usage meter and its next owner is SpaceX/xAI, with the deal closing Q3 2026. Windsurf — renamed Devin Desktop — counters with real enterprise compliance (FedRAMP/HIPAA/ITAR) and JetBrains support, at the cost of betting on Cognition's Devin-first roadmap after two owners and two renames in a year. Regulated environment → Windsurf. Everyone else managing their own credit burn → Cursor, eyes open on the acquisition.
Where the quality sits
Family mean over covered elements only — a dash means the family is honestly outside that tool’s scope.
| Cursor Scope 17/20 · Quality 8/10 audited 2026-07-10 | Windsurf (Devin Desktop) Scope 17/20 · Quality 8/10 audited 2026-07-12 | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Anysphere, Inc. (acquisition by SpaceX announced 16/06/2026, expected to close Q3 2026 pending regulatory approval) | Cognition AI, Inc. (acquired Windsurf 14/07/2025; product renamed Devin Desktop 02/06/2026) |
| Origin | US | US |
| Pricing | Hobby free · Pro ~€19 ($20) · Pro+ ~€56 ($60) · Ultra ~€185 ($200) · Teams ~€37/seat ($40; Premium seat ~€111/$120) per month, billed in USD; −20% annual. Paid tiers include a usage-credit pool — heavy frontier-model use costs extra beyond the sticker price. BugBot is a separate $40/user/month product. | Free · Pro ~€19 ($20) · Max ~€185 ($200) · Teams ~€74 base + ~€37 per full dev seat ($80 + $40) per month, billed in USD · Enterprise custom. Quota-based since 03/2026 (Pro was $15 with 500 credits before); extra usage billed at API pricing. |
| Pr Prompts | 8 | 8 |
| Em Embeddings | 7 | 7 |
| Cx Context | 9 | 9 |
| Tr Tracing | 7 | 7 |
| Lg LLM | 9 | 9 |
| Fc Function calling | 9 | 9 |
| Vx Vector store | 7 | 7 |
| Rg RAG | 8 | 8 |
| Gr Guardrails | 8 | 8 |
| Mm Multimodal | 6 | 6 |
| Ag Agents | 9 | 9 |
| Ft Fine-tuning | — | — |
| Fw Frameworks & harnesses | 8 | 8 |
| Ev Evaluations | 6 | 6 |
| Sm Small models | 7 | 7 |
| Ma Multi-agent | 7 | 8 |
| Sy Synthetic data | — | — |
| Pc Protocols | 8 | 9 |
| In Interpretability | — | — |
| Th Thinking models | 8 | 8 |
Hover any score for the written reason. Full detail: Cursor passport → · Windsurf (Devin Desktop) passport →