AI Coding Tools: Claude, Windsurf, VSCode

AI-powered software development tools are rapidly evolving, expanding into AI agents that can write applications, debug problems, and manage entire codebases. Several leading tools come from startups, while others are from established players like Microsoft and Anthropic.

Abhay Bhargav, founder and chief research officer at AppSecEngineer, says AI has already changed how his company works, using it to build proofs-of-concepts and minimum viable products. The rapid pace of change means software engineers may find themselves switching between tools frequently. Still, a few leaders have proven stable.

Cursor

Launched in 2023 by the AI lab Anysphere, Cursor was the first AI coding tool to gain widespread popularity among developers and remains the most popular AI-focused integrated development environment (IDE) today. An IDE provides a comprehensive toolkit that spans file management, code writing, compiling, debugging, and more. Cursor is a fork of Visual Studio Code (VSCode). That base made the general look and feel seem familiar to many developers which, combined with its early entry, helped it gain popularity, primarily through word-of-mouth on Reddit, X,YouTube, and other social media platforms. Cursor has AI-powered code auto-completion, automated code-rewriting to fix syntax errors, and the ability to tap Web resources or a developer’s own documentation as a resource that AI can use to understand code. Recently, Cursor added “agent mode” for multistep AI coding across a codebase. Bhargav says that, although he frequently tries other AI-powered IDEs, he keeps returning to Cursor because of its code quality and reliability.

Claude Code

Knowles relies on Anthropic’s Claude Code. Released in February, Claude Code isn’t an IDE but works directly in the MacOS terminal or Linux command line, helpful for developers who prefer a text-based command line interface. Knowles prefers Claude Code because he has more control over the workflow. He wasn’t happy with the autocomplete and error-handling features of some AI-based IDEs, including Cursor, as he felt they lowered his awareness of how his code functioned.

Windsurf

Windsurf, originally released by Codeium as the Windsurf Editor, quickly established itself as the main alternative to Cursor. It grew so quickly that Codeium rebranded the company as Windsurf in April 2025. Then, in May 2025, OpenAI purchased Windsurf for US $3 billion. Like Cursor, Windsurf is a fork of VSCode and offers a familiar interface with AI features. Windsurf can autocorrect syntax errors, understand a codebase and its documentation, and support agentic AI that can modify multiple files across a codebase. The defining feature of Windsurf is Cascade, an interface that appears next to code and allows access to agentic AI capable of multistep tasks. Windsurf also differs by allowing developers to use it not only in Windsurf’s IDE but also as an extension in other popular IDEs, like Jetbrains. Although it’s a major player—and now owned by OpenAI—Windsurf’s popularity appears a step behind the two biggest names. Bhargav briefly tried it but returned to Cursor, and Knowles hadn’t tried it at all.

Visual Studio Code

Microsoft’s integration of AI into VSCode was slower and more cautious than the startups that emerged to compete with it. Early versions of Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot were met with mixed reception. In addition, Microsoft’s February announcement of GitHub Copilot’s agent mode was months behind competitors. The agent mode is now available but still in “preview” with limited access. Developers who moved to Cursor and Windsurf may be tempted back to VSCode as Microsoft’s AI becomes more competitive. VSCode’s extension support also lets third-party developers add their own AI extensions. Cline, Roo Code, Continue.dev, and Tabnine are among the more popular examples.

Other AI Coding Tools

If you just want to vibe, though, you can find AI coding tools built for it. The most popular examples include Lovable, Replit, Bolt, and Google’s Firebase. These tools start with a chat interface that lets users describe what they want to build before seeing code. They also exist in a Web browser, so there’s no software to download, install, or configure. Programmers using these tools can literally forget the code exists, as it’s often unnecessary to view or modify the code behind the programs these tools create—for small projects, at least.

OpenAI released its “cloud-based engineering agent,” Codex, in May. Mistral, creator of the open-weight Mistral and Codestral model families, released Mistral Code in June. Apple announced a slew of new AI-powered coding tools at its June developer conference. And a small cadre of developers have embraced Zed, an AI IDE that isn’t forked off VSCode but instead built from scratch for AI-powered development. There are even more extreme AI tools, like Devin, which advertises itself as an all-in-one “AI software engineer.” The only constant in AI development seems to be its rapid advancement—and that applies to AI-powered IDEs and coding tools, too.