What are the main alternatives to Cursor?
The main Cursor alternatives are GitHub Copilot in VS Code, Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf), Google Antigravity, Kiro and Zed: AI editors or editor extensions that work much like Cursor, with an agent, chat and code completions. For an open source route, Cline and Zed let you bring your own model, and terminal agents like Claude Code and Codex suit people who would rather hand off whole tasks.
The right pick depends on what you want to change: the price, the models you can use, the editor itself, or the way you work with AI. The sections below follow those four questions, and each tool links to kipt.me's head-to-head comparison with Cursor.
Why are people moving away from Cursor?
Cursor is an AI code editor with Tab completions, an agent and a CLI. As of October 2026, its pricing page lists five individual plans: Free, Plus at $8 a month, Premium at $30, Super at $100 and Ultra at $200. A few details on that page drive most of the searching:
- Plus says "Only Grok models are available on this plan."
- Premium and up include "Third-party models at API list price," so Claude, GPT and Gemini usage is billed on top of the plan's own usage pool.
- Teams starts at "$30+/user/month."
None of that makes Cursor a bad deal for heavy users, but if you mostly want one third-party model at a flat price, or want to stay in stock VS Code or JetBrains, another tool may fit better. The Cursor pricing guide breaks the plans down in detail.
How do the main Cursor alternatives compare?
Prices are the cheapest way in, as of October 2026, from each vendor's official pricing page.
| Tool | What it is | Price to start | Good fit if you | Deep comparison |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot | Extension for VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains, Xcode and more, plus a CLI and app | Free; Pro $10/mo | Want to keep your editor and pick from many models | Cursor vs Copilot |
| Devin Desktop | AI editor, formerly Windsurf | Free; Pro $20/mo | Want a Cursor-like editor plus Devin cloud agents | Cursor vs Windsurf |
| Google Antigravity | Agent app, IDE and CLI from Google | $0 individual plan; Business from $30/seat | Want Gemini models and a free start | Cursor vs Antigravity |
| Kiro | IDE, CLI and web, built around specs | Free (50 credits); Pro $20/mo | Like planning work as written specs | Kiro vs Cursor |
| Zed | Open source, high-performance editor | Personal $0 with your own keys; Pro $10/mo | Want a fast native editor that hosts other agents | Zed vs Cursor |
| Cline | Open source agent extension and CLI | Pay your provider, or ClinePass $9.99/mo | Want an agent in VS Code or JetBrains with any model | Cline vs Cursor |
| Claude Code | Terminal agent with VS Code and JetBrains extensions | Claude Pro $20/mo | Prefer to delegate whole tasks | Claude Code vs Cursor |
| Codex | Terminal agent, IDE extension, desktop and web | ChatGPT Free (desktop app, limited); Plus $20/mo for CLI and IDE | Already pay for ChatGPT | Codex vs Cursor |
Which AI editors are closest to Cursor?
Devin Desktop. Windsurf became Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026, and the Devin Desktop FAQ calls it "the same IDE, same editor, and has the same features, but unified under the Devin brand." Devin's pricing lists a Free plan with "Unlimited Tab completions" and a light agent quota, Pro at $20 a month with Devin cloud agents, and Max at $200. See the Devin Desktop guide.
Google Antigravity. Google's pricing page offers a $0 plan for individuals with "Unlimited Tab completions," "Unlimited Command requests" and "Basic weekly rate limits." Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers get higher limits, and Claude models are available on some plans per the models page. It comes as a desktop app for running agents, an IDE and a CLI. See the Antigravity guide.
Kiro. Kiro's pitch is "spec-driven development": it drafts requirements, a design and tasks before it writes code. Kiro's pricing runs from Free with 50 credits to Pro at $20 with 1,000 credits, Pro+ at $40, Pro Max at $100 and Power at $200, with add-on credits at $0.04 each.
GitHub Copilot. If you mostly want Cursor's features without leaving VS Code, Copilot is the usual answer. GitHub's plans page lists Free, Pro at $10 a month, Pro+ at $39 and Max at $100, and names "VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains, Eclipse, and Xcode" for agent mode. Students can get Copilot Student at no cost.
Which free or open source tools can replace Cursor?
- Zed is open source, and its Personal plan is "Free forever," with unlimited use through your own API keys or external agents, per zed.dev/pricing. Through the Agent Client Protocol it can run Claude Agent, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode and others inside the editor. Pro adds unlimited edit predictions for $10 a month.
- Cline is Apache 2.0 licensed and installs in "VS Code / Cursor / Windsurf / VSCodium / Antigravity," JetBrains IDEs and the terminal, per its install docs. You bring your own provider key, including local runtimes, or use ClinePass at $9.99 a month.
- VS Code with your own key. VS Code's language model docs say "BYOK models work without signing into a GitHub account and without a Copilot plan." That covers chat and agent work with providers like Anthropic, OpenAI and Gemini, but inline code completions still need a GitHub account.
Free tiers change often, so treat these as a starting point and check each pricing page before you plan around a limit.
Should you switch to a terminal agent like Claude Code or Codex instead?
If most of your Cursor use is the agent panel rather than Tab, a terminal agent may suit you better. You describe a task, the agent reads the code, edits files and runs commands, and you review the diff.
- Claude Code needs a paid Claude plan, from Pro at $20 a month as of October 2026 per claude.com/pricing. It runs in the terminal, a desktop app, the browser, and as extensions for VS Code, Cursor and JetBrains.
- Codex is included from ChatGPT Plus at $20 a month for the CLI and IDE extension, per OpenAI's pricing page. The extension runs in VS Code, Cursor and Windsurf.
You don't have to leave Cursor to try either one: both run in Cursor's terminal or as extensions inside it. The Claude Code alternatives page compares the wider field of terminal agents.
How do you move your Cursor rules, skills and MCP servers?
Rules. Cursor's rules docs say "Project rules live in .cursor/rules as .mdc files," and no other tool reads that format. Cursor also "supports AGENTS.md in the project root and subdirectories," and so do Codex, Kiro, Antigravity and OpenCode, while Copilot supports AGENTS.md as agent instructions. Move anything that isn't Cursor-specific into AGENTS.md and keep .mdc files only for rules that attach to file patterns. The AGENTS.md vs Cursor rules guide shows how to split them.
Skills. Agent Skills are portable. Cursor reads .agents/skills/, .cursor/skills/ and, for compatibility, Claude and Codex skill folders. If your skills live in .agents/skills/, Codex, GitHub Copilot and Antigravity find them too. The Agent Skills guide covers the format.
MCP servers. Most of these tools support MCP, but each keeps its own config file. List the servers in your Cursor mcp.json (the Cursor MCP guide shows where it lives) and add them again in the new tool.
This is the part of a switch that's worth doing once. Kipt keeps your prompts and skills as Markdown in a private GitHub repo you own, so they aren't tied to any editor, and installs every skill into Claude Code or Codex with one npx skills add command. If a rule is really a reusable workflow, the free SKILL.md generator turns it into a skill folder.
Which Cursor alternative fits you?
- You want to stay in VS Code, Visual Studio or JetBrains: GitHub Copilot, or Cline for any model in VS Code or JetBrains. The GitHub Copilot alternatives page covers that side.
- You want an editor that feels like Cursor: Devin Desktop or Antigravity. If you leave Antigravity later, see Antigravity alternatives.
- You want structure before code: Kiro.
- You want speed, open source or your own keys: Zed or Cline.
- You want to delegate whole tasks: Claude Code or Codex.
Try your top two on the same real task with the same AGENTS.md. That tells you more than any feature table.