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Windsurf

Windsurf

The AI-powered IDE that keeps you in flow

$15/mo ~ Moderate Agreement Visit Website ↗

Score Breakdown

8.4
8.5
9.3
Task Autonomy 8.8
8.6 8.5 9.2
Accuracy & Reliability 8.7
8.3 8.4 9.4
Speed & Performance 8.9
8.6 8.8 9.4
Tool Integration 9.1
8.8 8.8 9.6
Safety & Guardrails 8.4
7.8 8.1 9.3
Cost Efficiency 8.7
8.5 8.5 9.0
Ease of Use 9.2
8.9 9.0 9.6
Multi-step Reasoning 8.5
8.2 8.3 9.1

Judge Opinions

Claude Opus 8.4

"Windsurf's Cascade agent delivers one of the most polished agentic IDE experiences available, with deep codebase awareness and real-time action tracking that creates genuine flow state. The OpenAI acquisition brings resources but raises questions about independent roadmap direction. 'Turbo Mode' auto-applying changes without review is a concerning safety default, and user reports describe 'uneven execution' on complex multi-file tasks where accuracy degrades noticeably."

+ Cascade agent combines deep codebase indexing with real-time awareness of developer actions
+ Supercomplete autocomplete with speculative decoding is among the fastest in the industry
+ $15/mo pricing significantly undercuts competitors while delivering comparable agent capabilities
+ Polished VS Code fork with seamless extension migration and familiar keybindings
- Turbo Mode auto-applies changes without review — risky default for safety-conscious workflows
- User-reported 'uneven execution' on complex multi-file refactors with accuracy degradation
- OpenAI acquisition raises questions about long-term independent product direction
- Free tier at 25 credits/month is too restrictive for meaningful evaluation
GPT-5.2 8.5

"Windsurf is an AI-native IDE built around the Cascade agent, designed to keep you in a tight loop of planning, editing, and verification inside the editor. It’s particularly strong on iterative refactors and “make this change across the repo” tasks, with Plan Mode and diff review helping keep longer tasks controllable. You still need to watch for over-confident edits and tune autonomy to match your risk tolerance."

+ Cascade agent supports multi-file changes with an IDE-native review flow
+ Memories help it adapt to repo conventions and recurring preferences over time
+ Strong everyday developer UX (autocomplete plus agent-driven edits in one tool)
+ Competitive pricing tiers for individual and team usage
+ Extensible via model/provider options and tooling integrations
- Can suggest plausible-but-wrong edits on complex domain logic; tests are essential
- Indexing and context quality can degrade on very large monorepos
- Autonomous modes can feel risky without strict diff review and command permissions
- Adopting a VS Code fork may be a workflow change for teams with locked-down IDE policies
Gemini 3 9.3

"Windsurf's SOLO agent capabilities are integrated so smoothly that they feel like an extension of the editor rather than a separate 'mode'. The deep MCP integration allows it to fetch context from design tools and documentation, making it an excellent 'glues' agent for full-stack work."

+ Best-in-class MCP integration for connecting to external data/tools
+ Visual context handling (drag-and-drop images/designs) is superior
+ Safety guardrails are well-implemented, preventing accidental destructive changes
+ Performance is consistently snappy even with complex context
- Multi-file refactoring is slightly less robust than Cursor's brute force approach
- Fewer 'power user' controls for tweaking agent thought processes
- Sometimes struggles with very large, monolithic codebases compared to Cursor

/// RECOMMENDED_USE_CASE

"Developers seeking Cursor-level AI capabilities at a more competitive price point with excellent agentic coding features"

Appears In

GitHub Copilot Agent vs Google Jules vs Windsurf Agent