Cursor vs Windsurf (2025): Which Vibe Coding AI is Better?

TL;DR

• Best for Speed: Cursor (with Supermaven).
• Best for Agents: Windsurf (Cascade flows).
• Best for Vibe Coding: Cursor (Composer is still the king of multi-file edits).
• Winner: Cursor for now, but Windsurf is catching up fast.

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Table of Contents

• The Contenders
• Feature Battle: Composer vs. Cascade
• Speed Test
• The "Vibe" Check
• Pricing
• Verdict

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The Contenders

Cursor AI

The reigning champion. Forked from VS Code, it introduced the world to "Composer" and "Tab-to-Edit". It feels like a native extension of your brain.

Windsurf (by Codeium)

The challenger. Built on the same VS Code foundation but with a different philosophy: "Flows". Windsurf wants to be an agent that does work for you, not just an assistant.

Feature Battle: Composer vs. Cascade

Cursor Composer (Cmd + I)

Composer is a floating window that can edit multiple files.

• Pros: Fast, intuitive, great at "applying" diffs.
• Cons: Can sometimes get lost in large contexts.

Windsurf Cascade

Cascade is a chat interface that has deep knowledge of your codebase.

• Pros: "Deep Context" is superior. It finds files you didn't know were relevant.
• Cons: The UI feels more like a chat and less like an editor.

Winner: Cursor Composer for pure coding speed. Windsurf Cascade for debugging complex systems.

Speed Test

We ran the same prompt on both: "Create a Next.js blog post page with markdown rendering."

• Cursor: Generated in 12 seconds. Applied edits in 3 seconds.
• Windsurf: Generated in 15 seconds. Applied edits in 5 seconds.

Winner: Cursor. The integration of Supermaven (if enabled) makes it feel instant.

The "Vibe" Check

Vibe Coding is about flow.

• Cursor feels like a hyper-fast text editor. It gets out of your way.
• Windsurf feels like a pair programmer. It's helpful, but sometimes chatty.

If you want to direct (Vibe Code), Cursor is better. If you want to delegate, Windsurf is better.

Pricing

Both offer generous free tiers and $20/mo pro plans.

• Cursor: Includes Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT-4o.
• Windsurf: Includes their custom "Cascade" model plus standard LLMs.

Verdict

For 90% of developers in 2025, Cursor is still the best tool for Vibe Coding. See how it stacks up against the rest in our Best AI Code Editors list. Its "Composer" workflow is unmatched for rapid iteration.

However, keep an eye on Windsurf. Its agentic capabilities are evolving faster than anything else on the market.

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Want to master the winner? Check out our guide on Mastering Cursor Composer.