Cursor vs Windsurf (2026): Which Vibe Coding AI Wins After the Codeium Rebrand?

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 (formerly Codeium)

The challenger just rebranded from Codeium to the Windsurf Editor + Plugins brand to spotlight its agentic Cascade experience and unified naming. The Windsurf tool page now leads with Cascade, Tab/Supercomplete, and the enterprise-friendly security model that ships across the editor and plugin lineup.

Want the full breakdown of the rebrand, pricing, and agentic workflows? Read the Windsurf review for the long-form take.

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. If you want to compare other matchups like GitHub Copilot or Tabnine, check the Windsurf comparison hub and the Windsurf alternatives page.

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 reasonably priced paid tiers.

• Cursor: Includes Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT-4o on its $20/mo Pro plan.
• Windsurf: Lists Pro at $15/mo with prompt credits, Teams at $30/user/mo, and Enterprise at $60/user/mo, all with Cascade/Tab plus the option for cloud, hybrid, or self-hosted deployment.

Verdict

For 90% of developers in 2026, 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 (formerly Codeium). Its agentic capabilities are evolving faster than anything else on the market, and you can track the brand shift plus pricing on the Windsurf alternatives and Windsurf vs Cursor pages.

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