Why people are leaving Cursor in 2026
Most “Cursor alternatives” lists were written for the old Cursor. Three things changed this year:
- Claude and GPT are no longer included. Cursor is now sold as part of The X Subscription. Paid plans include a weekly usage pool for Cursor’s own models (Grok 4.7, 4.6 and 4.5, and Composer 2.5). Third-party models such as Claude, GPT and Gemini are available on Premium ($30/month) and above, billed separately at API list price. The $8 Plus plan has no third-party models and no own API keys.
- New owner, new bundle. SpaceX completed its acquisition of Cursor’s maker on August 14, 2026. The subscription now bundles Cursor with Grok and X Premium features. If you only want a code editor, you’re paying for a bundle.
- The old plans are closed to new customers. Pro, Pro+ and Ultra keep working for existing subscribers, but anyone signing up today gets the new plans.
If none of that affects you, Cursor may still be the right editor. If it does, the list below is sorted by what you’re looking for.
Quick picks
| If you want… | Pick | Cost to start |
|---|---|---|
| Claude models, included in a flat price | Claude Code | Claude Pro, $20/month |
| An editor that feels like Cursor | Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) | Free plan; Pro $20/month |
| Claude and GPT in the editor you already use | GitHub Copilot | Free plan; Pro $10/month |
| An open-source agent inside VS Code | Cline | Free with your own API key or local models |
| An open-source editor | Zed | Free with your own keys; Pro $10/month |
| A spec-first workflow | Kiro | Free plan (50 credits); Pro $20/month |
| An open-source terminal agent for any model | OpenCode | Free with your own keys or local models |
| To use your ChatGPT subscription | OpenAI Codex | Included from ChatGPT Plus, $20/month |
Prices are from each vendor’s official pricing page, checked October 22, 2026.
The alternatives in more detail
Claude Code. If the main reason you used Cursor was Claude, this is the most direct replacement: Claude usage is included in Claude Pro ($20/month) and the Max plans. It’s an agent rather than an editor. You can use it in the terminal, a desktop app, the browser, or as an extension in VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, and Cursor itself. See Claude Code vs Cursor for the full comparison.
Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf). Cognition renamed Windsurf to Devin Desktop in June 2026. It’s still a VS Code-based AI editor with Tab completions and an agent, and it’s included in Devin’s plans: a free plan with a light quota, and Pro at $20/month with frontier models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and others, plus Cognition’s own SWE-2. Extra usage is billed at API pricing.
GitHub Copilot. Copilot works inside the editor you already use: VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Visual Studio, Xcode, Neovim and more. Pro costs $10/month. Since June 2026 usage is metered in GitHub AI Credits, and paid plans include models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and others. There’s also a free plan with limited chat and agent usage.
Cline. An open-source (Apache-2.0) agent for VS Code and JetBrains IDEs, with a CLI and desktop app. It asks for approval before acting and works with almost any model: your own API keys, 300+ models through Cline’s provider, or local models through Ollama and LM Studio. The extension is free; you pay your model provider.
Zed. A fast, open-source editor written in Rust, with its own agent. The free Personal plan lets you use your own API keys, local models, and external agents such as Claude’s agent or Codex through the Agent Client Protocol. Pro ($10/month) adds Zed-hosted models and unlimited Zed Edit Predictions. It’s not a VS Code fork, so expect a different extension ecosystem.
Kiro. AWS’s AI IDE, built on Code OSS. Before writing code it produces a spec: requirements, a design and a task list. Paid plans include Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and GPT-5.6 on a credit system, and there’s a free plan with 50 credits a month. See Claude Code vs Kiro.
OpenCode. An MIT-licensed terminal agent that works with 75+ model providers, local models, and existing subscriptions such as GitHub Copilot or ChatGPT. It’s free; an optional Go plan ($10/month) gives access to a curated set of open coding models.
OpenAI Codex. If you already pay for ChatGPT, Codex is included: Plus ($20/month) unlocks it on the web, in the CLI, in the IDE extension and on iOS, and Free and Go include limited use in the ChatGPT desktop app. The CLI is open source (Apache-2.0) and can run local models. Its IDE extension also works in VS Code-based editors, including Cursor.
What happened to Roo Code?
Roo Code, a popular open-source pick in older lists, shut down on May 15, 2026, and its repository is archived. Its maintainers point users to Cline and to ZooCode, a community fork. We’ve left it out of the list below.
