Cursor vs GitHub Copilot vs Windsurf: I Tested All Three IDE

So my buddy Ravi was messing with me about which IDE he should switch to. He’s been on VS Code with Copilot for like three years and suddenly everyone at his job started using Cursor. He was confused as hell. Then my other friend Priya mentioned she tried Windsurf and it blew her mind, but nobody else she knows uses it.

So we all sat down one weekend, tried all three, and I figured I’d write down what we actually found instead of just reading some SEO optimized garbage. I’m not being paid by anyone. I just genuinely spent way too much time playing with code editors because we were bored.

Let’s Just Be Real About What We Found

Okay so here’s the thing. None of them is like, obviously the best. They’re just different, and which one works depends on what you actually do.

Copilot’s been around forever, everyone knows it, it works fine with what you’re already doing. Cursor understands your entire project and it’s kind of mind blowing when you get how that works. Windsurf is newer and honestly still figuring itself out, but some of the stuff it does is actually pretty cool.

Here’s what we tested them on, real quick:

Thing	Cursor	Copilot	Windsurf
Cost	$20	$10	Around $15
Hard to set up?	Not really	Super easy	Pretty easy
Get it to work in like five minutes?	Nah	Yeah	Kind of
People using it	Lots now	Like everyone	Still not that many

Cursor: The One That Actually Watched My Code

I’d heard people talking about Cursor but I didn’t get what the big deal was until I actually started using it on a real project.

So I’m working on this payment system, right? It’s got the API handler, the database queries, the webhook stuff, the email notifications. All spread across different files. And I was building a new feature that needed to touch like four different files to work properly.

I opened it in Cursor and I could literally point at all the files and ask it to help me build this feature while making sure it fit with everything else. And it actually DID understand how everything connected. It wasn’t just looking at one file going “oh okay let me suggest something.” It was like “okay I see your database schema, I see how your API talks to it, I see what the webhooks look like, here’s how to add this feature so it doesn’t break anything.”

That blew my mind honestly.

What Actually Made Me Like Cursor

The codebase understanding is real. It’s not marketing bullshit. When you’re working on something complicated that touches multiple parts of your system, Cursor gets it in a way that Copilot just doesn’t.

And because it knows your code style and your patterns, the stuff it writes looks like it belongs in your project. I wasn’t sitting there going “wow that’s weirdly formatted” or “that doesn’t fit our style.” It just looked normal.

Priya said the same thing. She was refactoring this big old authentication mess and Cursor helped her split it into smaller pieces without everything exploding. She said with Copilot she would’ve spent like two hours just verifying that nothing broke. With Cursor it took her maybe thirty minutes.

One thing that’s actually helpful is that you can use keyboard shortcuts to point Cursor at specific files or folders. Like you’re asking it a question and you go “@database” to say “remember the database files” or “@utils” to say “look at the utilities.” It sounds dumb but it actually works way better than copying and pasting code into a chat window.

But Here’s The Actual Problems With It

Learning it takes time, man. Like you gotta sit down and figure out the shortcuts and how to ask it questions in a way that makes it understand. My coworker Milan tried it for like thirty minutes, got frustrated, and went back to Copilot. It’s not hard but it’s not instant either.

Twenty bucks a month is actually kind of annoying to pay. Like if you’re coding for fun on weekends, that’s just money out of your pocket. If you code full time, it’s like “whatever it probably saves me money.” But if you’re somewhere in between, you gotta decide if it’s worth it.

And yeah, the community is way smaller. You get stuck on something weird and you’re like “okay I guess I’m figuring this out myself.” Or you find like one old Reddit thread from six months ago where someone had the same problem. It’s not the end of the world but it’s annoying.

One annoying thing is sometimes it gets too focused on copying your existing code style and ends up suggesting stuff that’s kind of bad because that’s how your codebase already works. Like if your code has some sketchy patterns, Cursor will suggest doing the same thing in new code because it’s just copying what it sees. You gotta be like “no wait that’s weird let’s not do that.”

When Cursor Actually Makes Sense

Use it if you’re working on actual real projects where there’s a lot of code talking to each other. If you’re at a startup building something real, or you’re maintaining something that’s been around a while and has a bunch of moving parts, Cursor is worth the money and the learning curve.

Also if you spend like thirty-forty hours a week coding, $20 a month is just part of your software budget. It’s not a big deal.

Copilot: The Thing That Just Fucking Works

Okay so Ravi’s been using Copilot for years and for good reason. It just works. Like, you install it as an extension in VS Code and suddenly you got AI helping you code. That’s it. Takes like five minutes.

Why Copilot Doesn’t Suck

Here’s the thing about Copilot: it’s actually really good at what it does. You’re writing a function that you’ve written a hundred times? It generates it. You need some boilerplate? It’s there. You’re writing a basic API call? It knows the pattern.

The reason so many people use it is because it just fits into how they already work. You’re in VS Code. You already know VS Code. You add an extension. You keep going. No learning curve. No switching tools. No hassle.

And there’s like a million people using it so if you get stuck or confused, you can find answers. Tutorials everywhere. Documentation. Stack Overflow. People on Reddit talking about it. That actually matters more than people think.

It also works in like every editor. VS Code, PyCharm, WebStorm, Vim, whatever you’re using, Copilot probably has support for it. So if you use different tools for different things, Copilot just follows you around.

Ravi said his team at work all uses Copilot and honestly the fact that everyone knows how to use it means when someone asks for help, everyone can actually help them. When new people join the team, they already know Copilot from home or from somewhere else. It’s familiar.

Where Copilot Drives You Crazy

Okay so here’s the thing that bugs me about Copilot. Sometimes it generates code that looks right but it’s not. Like you look at it and go “yeah that makes sense” but then you run it and it breaks because it’s using the wrong variable name or it’s missing a parameter or something.

Then you spend like thirty minutes debugging code that was supposed to save you time. And that’s super annoying.

The other issue is Copilot doesn’t really understand your entire codebase the way Cursor does. If you’re making a change that needs to touch multiple files or multiple parts of your system, you’re basically doing the thinking yourself and asking Copilot to help with pieces. You gotta jump around and verify that nothing breaks somewhere else. It’s not terrible but it’s more work.

And if you’re trying to get your whole team using it, it becomes this management thing. Everyone needs accounts, everyone’s got different setups, you’re updating licenses, dealing with IT stuff. One person using it is easy. Five people using it becomes annoying.

Milan’s team tried rolling out Copilot to everyone and it took like three weeks of back and forth with IT before everyone actually had it working. And then different people had different versions and things worked differently for different people. It was a mess.

When Copilot Is Actually The Right Choice

Use Copilot if you like VS Code and you don’t wanna switch. Use it if most of your work is just individual functions or smaller pieces of code. Use it if your team already uses it and switching would be more of a pain than staying. It’s the safe choice. The thing that definitely works. The thing where you can find help. That matters.

Windsurf: The New Thing That’s Still Weird

Windsurf showed up pretty recently and we were all curious about it because it’s built from scratch as an IDE that thinks about AI from the beginning instead of bolting AI onto an existing IDE. Priya tried it for like a week and she was excited about it but also kind of frustrated because not many people use it yet.

What’s Interesting About Windsurf

It’s new, which means the people building it could think about the whole thing differently from the start. Like they didn’t have to worry about backwards compatibility or maintaining old code. They could just build something and think about AI the whole time.

Some of the stuff it does is actually pretty clever. The way you interact with the AI feels a little different. More collaborative maybe? Like it’s not “here’s your copilot extension” it’s more “here’s how we think AI and human should work together.”

What’s Good About It

It’s genuinely new and interesting. If you like playing with new tools and you’re curious how people are thinking about coding with AI, it’s worth checking out. And the people using it actually seem to care about it and help each other.

Priya said the community was small but actually helpful when she got stuck. Like people actually answered her questions instead of just pointing at documentation.

The Actual Problems

It’s new. That means if something breaks or something weird happens, you’re probably the first person dealing with it. Or like the tenth person. There’s no massive mountain of Stack Overflow answers. You might be figuring stuff out yourself.

Also nobody knows if it’s gonna be around in five years. That sounds dramatic but it’s real. Tons of developer tools have died. You could learn it, get good with it, invest your time, and then the company decides it’s not worth continuing or runs out of money. That’s a risk with new stuff.

Priya was worried about that too. Like she likes it but she knows she might have to switch back to something else at some point if Windsurf doesn’t become a bigger thing.

Also it’s not as stable as the other two. Like not broken or anything, but there’s probably bugs that haven’t been discovered yet because not enough people are using it. That’s just how it works with new tools.

When You Should Actually Try Windsurf

Try it if you like being an early adopter. Try it if you’re curious and you don’t mind dealing with weird edge cases. Try it if switching IDEs isn’t a big deal for you. But don’t rely on it if you need something stable for work right now.

What Actually Happened When We Tried This Stuff

So we didn’t just talk about it, we actually worked on stuff with each IDE. Here’s what went down.

Big Refactoring Thing

I had this function that was like 250 lines and it did five different things. It handled validation, it called the database, it sent emails, it did logging, all in one place. Needed to break it up.

With Cursor: I showed it the whole thing, pointed it at the other files that use this function, said “break this up into smaller functions but keep the interface the same.” It did it. Took like ten minutes. And everything still worked.

With Copilot: I had to like, manually understand what each piece did, ask Copilot to help me write separate functions, paste them all in, then go manually check that nothing broke. Took like forty-five minutes. And I still wasn’t 100% sure I didn’t mess something up.

Hunting Down A Weird Bug

There was something broken in production and the error message pointed at like the wrong place. You know how that goes. I had to trace through like six different files to figure out where the actual problem was.

With Cursor: I could literally ask it “trace the code flow from here to the database and show me where this could go wrong.” It understood the whole path and saved me probably an hour of staring at code.

With Copilot: I’m copying snippets, pasting them into a chat, hoping it understands the connection. It helps but I’m doing like eighty percent of the work.

Learning A New Library

I had to work with this library I’d never used before.

With Cursor: It learned my project structure, my code style, my dependencies. When it showed me examples, they actually fit into what I was building. Not just “here’s how the library works” but “here’s how to use this library in your project.”

With Copilot: It gave me decent basic examples. I had to figure out how to make them fit into my code. Takes more time but it works.

Okay But How Do You Actually Pick

Cursor if you’re working on actual complicated stuff. Real projects with multiple files talking to each other. Real jobs where you spend forty hours a week coding. You don’t mind spending twenty bucks a month.

Copilot if you like VS Code and you don’t wanna switch. If most of your code is smaller pieces. If you want something that has a massive community and tons of documentation. If you like things being stable and proven.

Windsurf if you like trying new things. If switching IDEs doesn’t stress you out. If you’re okay with rough edges and maybe dealing with bugs. If you wanna see how other people are thinking about this stuff.

Honestly the best way to know is to just try them. Spend like a week with one. Do your actual work in it. See how you feel. If you hate it, switch. Your gut tells you more than any article ever will.

My Real Talk

These tools aren’t gonna magically make you a better programmer. That’s not how it works. What they do is handle the stuff you do on autopilot so you can actually think about the hard stuff. The architecture decisions. The weird bugs. The things that matter.

The right one is just whichever one feels natural to you when you’re actually using it. Not the one with the most features, not the cheapest, not the one that got hyped on Twitter. The one that doesn’t get in your way when you’re trying to code.

Me, I use Cursor for the big complicated stuff at work and Copilot for quick side projects because that just makes sense. Ravi still uses Copilot for everything because he doesn’t wanna switch and honestly Copilot works fine for what he’s doing. Priya’s still messing with Windsurf because she just likes new stuff. All three choices are fine. Just pick one and actually use it for a week or two. You’ll figure it out.