Cursor vs Windsurf: Windsurf is now Devin Desktop

The first thing to know about this comparison is that one of the two products has a different name. Cognition retired the Windsurf brand in 2026 and windsurf.com now redirects to devin.ai. The editor did not go away, but every comparison written before that is describing a product page that no longer exists.

By the Continuum team. We build a workbench that runs Claude Code, Codex, and their peers, so the model rates quoted here are the ones our own cost analytics ship with.

The short version

Windsurf is now Devin Desktop. Cognition renamed it in 2026 and windsurf.com redirects to devin.ai, where the editor is sold alongside Devin cloud agents. As of August 2026 both products cost $20/mo at the entry tier and $200/mo at the top. Cursor optimizes for you steering with Tab; Devin Desktop optimizes for running several agents from one command center. Cursor has the larger community; Devin Desktop has the tighter cloud-agent story.

What you need to know
  • Windsurf is now Devin Desktop. windsurf.com redirects to devin.ai.
  • The editor is still shipping, and Windsurf for JetBrains continues to be available.
  • Entry prices now match at $20/mo; both top out at $200/mo.
  • Cursor is built around you steering with Tab; Devin Desktop around an agent command center.
  • Both have real free tiers, so this is a question to settle by trying them.
  • If you had Windsurf installed, you already have Devin Desktop. Check your billing page.

Windsurf is now Devin Desktop

Cognition acquired the company behind Windsurf and has since folded the editor into the Devin product line. The rename shipped as a product change rather than a shutdown, so the software is still there under a new name.

  • windsurf.com and windsurf.com/pricing both return a permanent redirect to devin.ai/desktop and devin.ai/pricing. Checked 7 August 2026.
  • Cognition states it plainly: "Devin Desktop is the new name for Windsurf. We are building on the IDE foundation of Windsurf to introduce the command center."
  • Windsurf for JetBrains continues to be available, according to the Devin Desktop FAQ, so the JetBrains plugin was not swept up in the rename.
  • Pricing moved onto the Devin plan ladder, which now sells the editor and the cloud agents from one page.

Side by side

From cursor.com and devin.ai, read in August 2026.

CursorWindsurf, now Devin Desktop
VendorAnysphereCognition
Entry price$20/mo Pro$20/mo Pro
Free tierYes, HobbyYes: light quota, unlimited inline edits and Tab completions
Mid tierPro+ price not publicly publishedNone between Pro and Max
Top individual tierUltra price not publicly published$200/mo Max
Team pricing$40/user/mo$80/mo plus $40/mo per full dev seat
Signature featureTab predictive editingAgent Command Center
Cloud agentsYes, on paid plansYes, Devin Cloud, from $20 Pro
In-house modelsNo, frontier models from vendorsYes, Cognition SWE models
Parallel agent workflowPossible, not the organizing ideaThe organizing idea
Worktree-aware agent contextManualSpaces, shared context and git worktrees
Ecosystem and community materialLargerSmaller, and the rename fragmented it

The prices, both sides

Individual and team plans, checked August 2026. Both vendors reprice.

TierCursorDevin Desktop
FreeHobby: limited agent requests, Composer accessFree: light quota, limited model availability
EntryPro, $20/moPro, $20/mo
MidPro+, not published (3x Pro limits)n/a
Top individualUltra, not published (20x Pro limits)Max, $200/mo, significantly higher quotas
TeamTeams, $40/user/moTeams, $80/mo plus $40 per full dev seat
EnterpriseCustomCustom
  • Cursor sells usage in multiples. Pro+ is 3x Pro and Ultra is 20x Pro, and every paid plan includes a set amount of model usage with on-demand overflow billed in arrears.
  • Devin Pro includes cloud agent access, which is the part that makes the $20 tier interesting: it is not only an editor subscription.
  • Cognition’s own SWE models are the cheap lane. The free plan advertises unlimited inline edits and unlimited Tab completions, and Pro advertises free use of the in-house SWE model and leading open-source models on top of the frontier ones.

Steering against delegating

The philosophical split that always separated these two got sharper after the rename, because Cognition now sells the editor as a front end for a fleet of agents rather than as a better place to type.

You preferSuits
Seeing every change as it happensCursor
Repetitive, mechanical refactoringCursor, for Tab
Describing an outcome and reviewing it laterDevin Desktop
Running four agents and checking a boardDevin Desktop
Work that continues while your laptop is shutDevin Desktop, via cloud agents
The most community material to learn fromCursor
Working in unfamiliar codeEither, both help

Cursor Tab predicts your next edit, which is often in a different place in the file and is usually the mechanical consequence of the change you just made. That is a steering tool: it makes the hour you spend in code faster. The Agent Command Center is the opposite bet, that you will spend your hour reviewing several agents rather than editing one file, and it is built around watching statuses rather than watching a cursor.

What the rename actually changed

A rename that reaches existing installs is unusual, and it raises a reasonable question: is this still the product you evaluated, or a different one wearing the same binary? Here is what the vendor pages support, separated from what they do not.

QuestionWhat the vendor pages say
Is it the same editor?"Devin Desktop is the new name for Windsurf", built on the same IDE foundation
Does windsurf.com still work?Yes, as a permanent redirect to devin.ai
Is the JetBrains plugin gone?No. "Windsurf for JetBrains continues to be available"
Where is pricing now?On devin.ai/pricing, alongside the Devin cloud agents
What is new in the editor?Agent Command Center, Spaces, Supercomplete, Fast Context, and ACP support
Are extensions guaranteed to carry over?Not something to take on trust. Test yours.

The strategic read is simple enough. Cognition sells an autonomous engineer and bought an editor; the rename is the point at which it stopped selling them as two products. That is good news if you want a local editor and cloud agents billed together, and it is a reason to pay attention if you only ever wanted the editor.

If you already had Windsurf

01

Check what your install calls itself

The rename shipped to existing installs. If your editor now says Devin Desktop, nothing broke: it is the same editor with a new name and a new home page.

02

Find your billing on devin.ai

Plans and invoices live on the Devin pricing page now. windsurf.com redirects there, so an old bookmark still lands in the right place.

03

Re-check your must-have extensions

Do not assume. Open the two or three extensions you genuinely cannot work without and confirm they still install and activate. This takes five minutes and is the only migration risk worth caring about.

04

Re-evaluate the price against Cursor

The old $15 entry price is gone and both products are now $20. If you originally chose Windsurf because it was cheaper, that reason no longer exists and the comparison is worth redoing.

05

Try the command center before you switch away

The agent board is the thing Cognition built the rename around. If running several agents at once suits how you work, it is the strongest argument for staying, and it has no equivalent in Cursor.

How to actually decide

  1. Use both free tiers for a week each on real work. Neither expires, and the difference between them is experiential rather than specified.
  2. Notice which one you reach for on a Tuesday. That is more informative than any evaluation you design in advance.
  3. Count the Tab accepts that are not at your cursor. That number is the entire value of Cursor Tab. If it is near zero for you, Cursor’s main argument does not apply.
  4. Count the times you wanted a second agent running. That number is the entire value of the command center.
  5. Ignore benchmarks. Both reach the same frontier models. The difference is the surface and the workflow, not the model.

What neither of them does

  • Give you one number for what the month cost. Editor subscription, on-demand overflow, cloud agent usage, and any API keys you hold are separate meters.
  • Run the same session from your phone. Both are desktop products first.
  • Let you keep your editor. Both ask you to adopt theirs, which is a bigger ask than adopting an extension.
  • Cover the terminal-agent half of the day the way a dedicated terminal agent does, with headless runs, budget ceilings, and one worktree per task.

Questions people ask

Yes, under a new name. Cognition renamed Windsurf to Devin Desktop in 2026, and windsurf.com now permanently redirects to devin.ai/desktop. The editor still ships, and the Devin Desktop FAQ says Windsurf for JetBrains continues to be available.

They are close and they now cost the same. Cursor is stronger at predictive editing with you in control. Devin Desktop, formerly Windsurf, is organized around running several agents from one command center, with cloud agents included from the $20 Pro tier. Pick on whether you steer or delegate.

Neither, as of August 2026. Both are $20/mo at the entry tier and $200/mo at the top. Windsurf used to be cheaper at around $15, and that is the single most commonly repeated out-of-date fact about this comparison.

Cognition, the company behind Devin, acquired it and later retired the Windsurf brand, folding the editor into the Devin product line as Devin Desktop. The rename reached existing installs, so users did not have to migrate or reinstall.

Generally yes, since both editors descend from VS Code, but do not assume it. Open the two or three extensions you cannot work without and confirm they install and activate before you commit to either one.

It is the surface Cognition built the rename around: one place to manage every agent you have running, local and cloud. It is the clearest structural difference from Cursor, which is organized around one editor window and one session at a time.

You can, but paying for two overlapping editors rarely makes sense. Use both free tiers for a week each, pick one, and put the second $20 toward a terminal agent instead, which covers a different part of the day.

If you consistently prefer describing outcomes and reviewing diffs rather than watching changes happen, a terminal agent fits that shape better, costs the same $20, and runs headless in CI. Editors earn their keep when you are the one typing.

Sources

Every figure above was read from these pages on August 2026. Vendors reprice without notice; if you find a stale number, tell us.

  1. Cursor pricing
  2. Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf)
  3. Devin plans and pricing
  4. Cursor documentation
Try it

Either editor.
Both agents.

Continuum runs the terminal agents from one workbench, whichever editor you settled on.

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