Hi guys! You might have heard a lot about Cursor — an editor like VS Code with AI built-in!
In this article, I'll discuss what I think about Cursor, and one alternative that I really love. So, let's get started!
What is Cursor?
You might have heard a lot about Cursor but not know what it is. Well, let me explain.
Cursor is a code editor similar to VS Code, but with built-in AI features like an AI chat, AI code autocompletion, and more. Cursor has a free plan, with 2000* free code autocompletions and limited access to advanced AI models like claude-3.5-sonnet and gpt-4o.
*Note: At first, my post said that you received unlimited autocompletions on the free plan. You actually just get 2000 for free, but a 14-day Pro trial...
See the pricing here for more info. Thank you @wrongsideofthetracks for pointing this out!
How I Feel About Cursor
I love Cursor because it's unique and innovative. It has AI everywhere, making coding much more efficient and easy.
There are some drawbacks. As a Cursor user on Ubuntu, I experience a lot of bugs and crashes. While the UI is familiar — essentially the same as VS Code — I don't feel completely confident that Cursor will remain a stable and supported product like VS Code has. Another drawback, which applies to most AI LLM chat with advanced models, is that they send code to a cloud computing service, where the code is processed by an AI. Some encrypt your code before sending it to the server; some don't.
An Alternative to Cursor
One of the alternatives to Cursor that I just love is Codeium. Codeium offers AI-powered code completion and supports a wide range of programming languages. It integrates seamlessly with various IDEs and editors, including VS Code. Codeium is known for its speed and accuracy, making it a strong contender for anyone looking to enhance their coding efficiency with AI.
Codeium offers autocompletions, a free AI chat (with your codebase and selection context), and more.
Summary
Is Cursor useful? For sure!
Is Cursor better than VS Code with AI extensions? Maybe, maybe not. It depends a lot on your preferences, how much you like to use AI, and the project you're working on.
I recommend downloading Cursor to give it a try!
What Do You Think?
Enough of what I think! Have you tried Cursor? Is there an AI coding tool you want to share?
Tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
This article was written by BestCodes without AI tools, such as grammar checkers, spelling checkers, or paraphrasers.
Check out my next post here!
Top comments (54)
Hey guys!
Be sure to share AI tools you love with me. I'll check them out and let you know what I think!
Well, Cursor is nice to play around with for a while, but in the long term I'll stick to VS Code and Copilot. It's more than enough for me.
That's basically how I feel (though I don't have Copilot). I've heard that Copilot is fantastic, but haven't tried it yet…
Does it have VIM keybindings? No? Okay, next...
It's a fork of VSCode, so you can use the TS plugin of VIM that MS made inside VSCode.
VSC does not really sound convincing to me.
Why not?
(And towards Cursor: 5. AI, I mean my employer would not like me sending all our code to a random company out there)
In my experience, VS Code has actually been pretty fast. I do think it could probably be fast if it didn't use Electron, but it works for me and is quite easy to debug.
Number 2 is a valid point... 😂
Not only that, but you can choose the default keyboard shortcuts to use when you first install the program. :D
I believe it does! :D
Nooooo ;( I hate VIM lol...
I just VSCode and CoPilot for a while, but I switched to Cursor shortly after it came out. I thought it was great for a long time, I love the integrated Chat versus auto-complete. That is until recently it seemed less and less helpful. I think it may have something to do with using GPT API keys instead of paying for a plan with Cursor, but so many times I would ask for help with issues and it would give me the exact same code that I had explained was bugging.
I have switched back to VSCode, partly because of what many others have said about long-term stability. Cursor is really just a fork of VS Code, and I have heard great things about Claude Dev. It seems to be a great improvement so far and includes the built-in chat!
Yes, there are a lot of concerns about stability.
Claude Dev is great! Personally, I prefer Codeium, which is completely free and has unlimited AI chat and autocompletions. There are a number of other awesome options, like Pieces, Copilot, Tabnine, etc.
Thanks for commenting!
Claude Dev is awesome :D
i hope this is not breaking any. I wrote about Cursor on my hobby website i have created.
i have never showed it before, so idk if this is wrong place, but here:
fulltutorial.net/u/Thor/article/in...
I think it is nice
I think it's fine to post the link. :)
Your post is great!
I installed it on two machines and it caused boot issues on both, I had to reinstall Ubuntu and lost two sets of local data / had to setup my machines again.
Not good! 😬
I had to start the
.appimagefile with--no-sandboxin the terminal to even get it working, and I had a lot of other problems that I haven't proven aren't just specific to my device or caused by Cursor, so I didn't include them in my post.Yeah same, instant crash and boot issues on work laptop then stupidly I tried on my personal I had 2 mins with it and it looked great but then it crashed and I had to use usb for reinstall of Ubuntu.
🙁
According to Cursor documentation it does not have unlimited code autocompletions.
Free users receive 2000 suggestions at no cost. Pro and Business plans receive unlimited suggestions.
I used it for a few days and loved their autocompletion feature and wondered why it stopped cause I didn't got any notifications.
Thanks for pointing this out! I addressed the problem in my post.
Switched to Cursor about two weeks ago on a Garuda Linux. It actually helped with some problems I couldn't solve on my own. Installed easy and haven't had issues. I was going to continue with a paid subscription, but now intrigued by Codeium.
Try both and let me know what you think!
Interesting article!
Thank you!
I gave it go and it is great but I had to give up using it as it locked up my Macbook Pro M2 to the point I had to hard reboot my machine. I will stick with VS Code and Codium.
Thanks for the feedback! It sounds like a lot of people are having problems with Cursor crashing.
There is a difference between Codium and Codeium. Just curious, which one do you use?
Oh, I just learnt something, thank you very much. I thought I made a typo. I have now installed Codeium. Much appreciated for your response, :-) otherwise I would never have known.
No problem! They're both AI tools, but different all the same. :D
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