Cursor vs Windsurf vs Claude Code vs Cline (November 2026): Best AI Coding Agent Compared

Picking an AI coding tool in November 2026 is harder than it was a year ago, because almost every product changed shape this year. Windsurf is now called Devin Desktop, Cursor was bought by SpaceX and rebuilt its plans around a weekly usage pool, GitHub Copilot moved to AI credits, and Claude Code and Cline both added cloud sessions. Most comparison posts you will find still describe the 2025 versions. In this guide I compare the current versions of Cursor, Windsurf (Devin Desktop), Claude Code, Cline and GitHub Copilot on price, models, agent features and local model support, with every price checked against a source dated October 2026 or later.

What Changed in 2026

If you last compared these tools in 2025, here is what moved. These are the facts that make most older comparison articles out of date.

• Cursor became part of SpaceX. SpaceX announced a deal for the right to buy Cursor in April 2026, exercised it in June, and closed the all-stock acquisition of Anysphere (Cursor’s parent company) on August 14, 2026, at an implied $60 billion equity value. Cursor is being folded into the SpaceXAI team. Bloomberg reported in May that Cursor had passed $3 billion in annual recurring revenue.
• Cursor 3 arrived with a new interface and an Agents window built for a world where most code is written by agents, and the autumn releases added Projects (a coordinator agent that delegates to parallel subagents on cloud machines, September 10), self-hosted agent machines (September 2) and an Agent SDK that defines agents as code (October 20).
• Cursor’s plans were replaced on October 18. The old Hobby, Pro, Pro+ and Teams plans are now legacy. New plans share one weekly usage pool, and the cheapest paid plan, Plus at $8, is limited to Grok models.
• Windsurf was renamed Devin Desktop by Cognition on June 2, 2026. The default screen is now an Agent Command Center, Devin Local replaced the Cascade agent (Cascade reached end of life on July 1), and the editor supports the open Agent Client Protocol so Codex, Claude Agent and Gemini CLI can run inside it.
• GitHub Copilot switched to usage-based AI credits on June 1, 2026, at 1 credit = $0.01.
• Claude Code and Cline both added cloud runs. Cline Cloud sessions started rolling out in v4.1.25 (October 16), and Claude Code keeps shipping weekly, including plugin marketplaces and idle compaction in October.

Pricing Compared (November 2026)

All prices are US dollars per month for individuals, taken from vendor pages as summarised by Developers Digest’s pricing tracker (last checked October 18, 2026). Always confirm on the official pricing page before you buy, because these tools now change plans every few months.

The big takeaway: for heavy daily agent use, everyone lands around $100 to $200 a month. For light use, Copilot Pro ($10) and Claude Pro ($20) are the cheapest ways to get frontier models, and Cline with a local model costs nothing beyond electricity.

Cursor

Cursor is still the most popular AI-first editor. It is a fork of VS Code, so your extensions, themes and keybindings carry over, and it adds tab completion, inline edits, an agent that edits many files at once and, since Cursor 3, an Agents window where you can run and watch several agents.

What is new this autumn

• Projects (September 10): a coordinator agent plans the work and hands parts to parallel subagents running on cloud machines, with shared context files.
• Self-hosted machines (September 2): companies can keep code, builds and secrets on their own servers while agents run there.
• Remote Control on iOS (October 6): check and message agents running on your computer from your phone.
• Origin app marketplace (October 13): more than 20 integrations such as Cloudflare, Linear and Sentry.
• Agent SDK (October 20): define agents as project folders with prompts, typed tools and skills, and trigger them from pull requests, CI, Slack, webhooks or cron.

The catch

The October plan change is the main complaint right now. The $8 Plus plan only gets Grok models, and new subscriptions are sold through X Subscription Corp. If you want Claude or GPT models inside Cursor you need Premium ($30) or higher. Cursor’s own Composer models are fast and cheap; Composer 2 (March 2026) was built on top of Moonshot’s open Kimi model, which Cursor confirmed after users spotted it.

Pick Cursor if: you want one polished editor with completions, agents and cloud runs in one place, and you are fine with a subscription.

Windsurf, Now Devin Desktop

Windsurf started as Codeium’s editor, was acquired by Cognition (the company behind Devin) in 2025, and on June 2, 2026 it was renamed Devin Desktop through an automatic update. If you open Windsurf today, you are using Devin Desktop.

• The home screen is now the Agent Command Center, a board of your local and cloud agent sessions. The full editor is one click away.
• Devin Local replaced Cascade as the local agent and adds parallel subagents. Cascade was switched off on July 1, 2026, so any script or CI step that called Cascade must use Devin Local.
• Spaces group sessions, pull requests, files and context into shared workspaces.
• Your settings, extensions, keybindings and MCP connections carried over. Old .windsurfrules files still work, and the new .devin/ folder takes priority.
• windsurf.com/pricing now redirects to devin.ai/pricing. Pro is $20/month.

Pick Devin Desktop if: you liked Windsurf’s flow and want an editor built around managing several agents at once, including Devin running in the cloud.

Claude Code

Claude Code is Anthropic’s agentic coding tool. It started as a terminal app and now also runs in VS Code, JetBrains, the Claude desktop app and the web. It reads your repository, plans, edits files, runs commands and tests, and keeps going until the task is done. Most developer surveys still rate it highest for code quality on long, complex tasks, largely because of the models behind it: Claude Opus 5.5 (September 2026) and Sonnet 5.5, with Haiku 5.5 as the default fast model since October 7.

October 2026 additions

• Plugins installed straight from marketplaces, and “mods” that change deeper behaviour (v2.1.287 to v2.1.292).
• Hooks that can block an action when they fail (v2.1.295).
• Idle compaction for long sessions, extended to VS Code and Claude Desktop (v2.1.299 and v2.1.314).
• A setting to block writes outside your working folders, and group budgets for teams (v2.1.314 to v2.1.316).

Cost

Claude Code is included with Claude Pro ($20/month, $17 billed yearly) and Max ($100 for 5x usage, $200 for 20x). You can also pay per token through the API: Opus 5.5 is $4 / $20 per million input/output tokens, Sonnet 5.5 is $2 / $10 and Haiku 5.5 is $0.10 / $0.50. For a deeper look at Claude’s models versus a cheaper open alternative, see my DeepSeek vs Claude comparison.

Pick Claude Code if: you are comfortable in a terminal or want the strongest agent for big refactors, migrations and test-driven fixes.

Cline

Cline is a free, open source coding agent that runs as an extension in VS Code (and in Cursor or Devin Desktop, since they are VS Code forks). You bring your own model: any API provider, or a model running on your own PC. That makes it the most flexible tool in this list and the only one here that is fully usable offline.

• Huge model catalog: as of v4.1.21 (September 24) Cline lists 6,386 models across 209 providers. With no model selected, the Cline and OpenRouter providers now default to Claude Sonnet 5.5 (v4.1.24).
• Parallel subagents: subagents spawned in the same step run their tool calls at the same time (v4.1.20).
• Cline Cloud sessions: rolling out from v4.1.25 (October 16), they run a task in a hosted sandbox on a GitHub repo and branch you choose. v4.1.26 (October 26) added a Local/Cloud toggle.
• Plan and Act modes, MCP support and checkpoints are still there, which is why I use Cline for my Blender MCP with a local LLM setup.

The cost depends on your model. Heavy use of a frontier API model can cost $20 to $50 a month or more; a local model costs nothing per token.

Pick Cline if: you want open source, full control of the model, or a private setup where code never leaves your machine.

GitHub Copilot and the Others

GitHub Copilot is the cheapest paid entry point. Since June 1 it uses AI credits: Pro ($10) includes 1,500 credits a month, Pro+ ($39) 7,000 and the new Max ($100) 20,000. Pro also lets you run Claude Code and OpenAI Codex as third-party agents inside GitHub. It works in VS Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio, Xcode and more, so you do not have to switch editors.

Other tools worth a look:

• OpenAI Codex: CLI, IDE extension and cloud agent, included with ChatGPT plans (Go $8, Plus $20, Pro tiers $100 to $500). GPT-5.5 was retired from Codex on October 14 in favour of GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6 Luna.
• Google Antigravity: Google’s agent-first IDE, with a free tier and Gemini 3.8 Flash and 3.1 Pro models. It replaced Gemini CLI for free users on June 18.
• Kiro (Amazon): spec-driven agent IDE, Pro from $20 with 1,000 credits.
• Zed: fast native editor, free with your own keys or $10 Pro.

Which Ones Work With Local Models?

This is a local AI site, so here is the honest answer for people who want to run a model on their own GPU:

If you want to go local, start with my best Ollama models by VRAM list for coding models that fit your GPU, and install Ollama first. Be realistic: a 16 GB card runs good coding models for small tasks, but long multi-file agent work still goes much better with a frontier cloud model or a big MoE model offloaded to lots of system RAM.

Which One Should You Pick?

• You want one editor that does everything: Cursor (Premium or higher if you want Claude or GPT models).
• You want the best results on hard tasks: Claude Code with Opus 5.5 or Sonnet 5.5.
• You want free, open source or local: Cline.
• You manage many agents at once: Devin Desktop or Cursor 3’s Agents window.
• You are on a tight budget or stuck in JetBrains/Visual Studio: GitHub Copilot Pro.

Many developers mix tools: Copilot or Cursor for completions while typing, and Claude Code or Cline for bigger agent jobs. Because Cline runs inside Cursor and Devin Desktop, you can try that combination without switching editors.

How to Install Each Tool in Five Minutes

A Workflow That Works With Any of Them

1. Write a rules file so the agent knows your stack and conventions: CLAUDE.md (Claude Code), .cursor/rules (Cursor), .clinerules (Cline), .github/copilot-instructions.md (Copilot), AGENTS.md (Codex and others).
2. Plan first. Ask for a plan before code: “Read the auth module and propose a plan to add password reset. Do not edit yet.”
3. Work on a git branch and commit after each good step, so you can roll back a bad edit in seconds.
4. Give it a way to check itself: tell the agent the test and lint commands and ask it to run them after each change.
5. Review every diff before you accept it, especially changes to config, dependencies and database migrations.

Common Problems and Fixes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Windsurf still available?

Yes, but under a new name. Cognition renamed Windsurf to Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026, and existing installs updated automatically. The Cascade agent was retired on July 1, 2026 and replaced by Devin Local.

Is Cursor free?

Cursor has a free tier with limited usage. Since October 18, 2026, paid plans are Plus ($8, Grok models only), Premium ($30), Super ($100) and Ultra ($200).

Is Claude Code better than Cursor?

For long, complex agent tasks, many developers find Claude Code more reliable, mostly because of Claude Opus 5.5 and Sonnet 5.5. Cursor is the better all-round editor with completions and a visual agent interface. They solve slightly different problems, and many people use both.

Is Cline really free?

The extension is free and open source. You pay whichever model provider you connect, or nothing if you run a local model through Ollama or LM Studio.

Who owns Cursor now?

SpaceX. The acquisition of Anysphere, Cursor’s parent company, closed on August 14, 2026, and Cursor is being integrated into the SpaceXAI team.

What is the cheapest way to use Claude for coding?

GitHub Copilot Pro ($10) includes Claude models and can run Claude Code as an agent within its credit limits. Claude Pro ($20) gives you Claude Code directly. For pay-as-you-go, Haiku 5.5 costs $0.10 / $0.50 per million tokens.

Can I use more than one of these tools together?

Yes, and many developers do: an editor like Cursor or VS Code with Copilot for inline completions, plus a terminal agent like Claude Code or Codex for bigger multi-file tasks. Share one rules file such as AGENTS.md so they follow the same conventions.

Final Thoughts

The AI coding market in late 2026 is about agents, not autocomplete. Cursor is the most complete editor, Claude Code gives the best agent results, Cline is the open and local choice, Devin Desktop is Windsurf reborn as an agent manager, and Copilot is the budget pick. Because prices and plans changed so much this year, check each vendor’s pricing page before you commit, and try the free tiers first. I will update this comparison when the next round of plan changes lands.

If you want to run your own models with Cline, read Ollama vs LM Studio vs llama.cpp to pick a runner, and my GGUF quantization guide to choose the right file size.

Sources

• Developers Digest: AI Coding Tools Pricing Comparison 2026 (updated October 18, 2026)
• Wikipedia: Cursor (company), SpaceX acquisition
• Cursor release notes index (September to October 2026)
• Cursor forum: Cursor 3 new interface
• Digital Applied: Windsurf becomes Devin Desktop
• Havoptic: Cline release notes
• GitHub: cline/cline
• Havoptic: Claude Code October 2026 releases