AI coding tools compared — Cursor, Copilot, Claude Code, Windsurf and Codeium
All five of these are priced between free and $20 a month for an individual, which makes the list price almost useless as a decision input. The differences that matter are editor coverage, whether multi-file work holds up, and what happens when you need fifty seats and a security review.
AI Tools Hub Editorial · published · updated
Pricing at a glance
| Tool | Free tier | Individual | Team | Editors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cursor | Limited | $20/mo Pro | $40/seat Business | VS Code fork only |
| GitHub Copilot | Limited | $10/mo | $19/seat Business | VS Code, JetBrains, VS, Neovim |
| Claude Code | — | Included in Claude Pro | Via Anthropic business plans | Any — it runs in the terminal |
| Windsurf | Generous | $15/mo | Teams | VS Code fork only |
| Codeium | Generous | $15/mo Pro | Enterprise, self-hostable | 70+ IDEs |
What the price does not tell you
Premium model caps
Cursor and Windsurf both cap requests to premium models per month. Heavy users hit the cap and buy credits, which means the real cost for a productive developer can exceed the headline figure. Budget for it rather than being surprised by it.
Editor coverage decides adoption
Cursor and Windsurf are VS Code forks. If part of your team is on JetBrains, those two are structurally unavailable to them, and a tool half the team cannot use is not a team tool. Copilot and Codeium cover both; Claude Code sidesteps the question entirely by living in the terminal.
Multi-file editing is the real differentiator
Single-line completion is close to parity across all five. Coordinated edits across several files are not. Cursor's Composer leads here, Claude Code is comparable in a different form, and the others trail. If most of your work is a single function at a time, this difference is worth less than the price gap; if it is refactoring, it is worth considerably more.
What changes at team scale
- Training exclusion: default on Copilot Business, available on Cursor via Privacy Mode, opt-in on individual plans
- SSO and audit logs: Copilot Enterprise and Codeium Enterprise are the strongest here
- Self-hosting: Codeium and Tabnine offer it; the VS Code forks do not
- Certification: Copilot carries SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001, which shortens procurement significantly
Choosing
| If you are | Choose | Because |
|---|---|---|
| A solo developer on VS Code | Cursor | Multi-file work and repository context justify the $10 difference |
| A team with mixed IDEs | GitHub Copilot | It is the only one that runs everywhere your team does |
| Already paying for Claude Pro | Claude Code | It costs nothing extra and works regardless of editor |
| Cost-constrained | Codeium | The free tier is genuinely usable, not a demo |
| Buying for fifty people | GitHub Copilot Business | Price per seat, certification and SSO together |
Is Cursor worth twice the price of Copilot?
For an individual doing multi-file work, usually yes. For a fifty-person team where half are on JetBrains, the question does not arise — Copilot is the only option that works.
Can we run more than one?
Commonly, yes. Claude Code alongside an editor-based tool is a frequent combination, because they do different jobs and Claude Code is included in a subscription many developers already have.
What about the free tiers?
Codeium and Windsurf have free tiers you can genuinely work in. Cursor's and Copilot's are closer to extended trials. If budget is the constraint, start with Codeium.
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