Cursor is your best option if you want to switch models frequently, run multiple agents in parallel, and also have the best tab complete out there. And you're still getting extra vc-funded tokens. You get ~$40 worth of tokens at API costs for the $20 plan.

idk seems worth it to me. If youre shelling out on one of the $200 plans maybe its not as worth it, but it just seems like the best all in one ai product out there.

Except for the autocomplete, it's not the best option even for the user you're describing.

Does anyone have autocomplete that is half as good as Cursors? I just tried vanilla vs code with github copilot and it was terrible. Not worth paying for bad.

windsurf is probably half as good

nothing else does it all

I find Cursor at the same level as Claude code, with some strengths and some weaknesses. Cursor is nice when I want to start multiple parallel agents, while browsing files, monitoring the progress, and switching models as needed. It’s just a simple, zero config environment i can just start using intuitively.

Claude code is more reliable and generally better at using MCP for tool cal, like docs from contex7. So if I had only one prompt and it HAD to make something work, Claude code would be my bet.

Personally I like jumping between models and IDEs , if only to mix it up. And you get a reminder of different ways of doing stuff.

I tried Claude Code once and half an hour later it printed $10 cost. I thought I was using the pro subscription, not the API. This makes using CC dangerous, so I am avoiding it.

Don't avoid it, fix it!

I'm currently flying, and using Cursor. I have my model set to Sonnet-4, and it keeps bugging me that my usage is going to end on 10/21, 10/19, 10/13, 10/08, after just a couple hours of VERY slow LLM usage.

I wouldn't even bother with it, but my MCP coding tool I built uses Claud Desktop and is for windows only, and my laptop is MacOS. So I'm using Cursor, and it is WAY WORSE than my most simple of MCP servers (that literally just does dotnet commands, filesystem commands, and github commands).

I think having something that is so general like cursor causes the editor to try too many things that are outside what you actually want.

I fought for 2 hours and 45 minutes while Sonnet-4 (which is what my MCP uses) kept inventing worse ways to implement OpenAI Responses using the OpenAI-dotnet library. Even switching to GPT-5 didn't help. Adding the documentation didn't help. I went to claude in my browser, pasted the documentation, and my class I wanted extended to use Responses, and it finished it in 5 minutes.

The Cursor "special-sauce" seems to be a hinderance now-days. But beggars can't be choosers, as they say.

As everyone with half a brain predicted, their pricing was never meant to last. Their "limit" (base plan) is now just $20 in API credits, at slightly higher than provider token price. Sometimes they let you go a little over, but I'm not sure if that's still true.