I tested 7 Cursor alternatives to find the best AI coding assistant in 2025

AI-first code editors like Cursor have really shaken things up for developers. They’re less like a simple tool and more like having a junior dev, a senior architect, and a patient rubber duck all helping you out directly in your editor. But as good as Cursor is, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Whether it’s the runaway costs of its usage-based pricing or the frustration of hitting context limits on a huge project, a lot of us are starting to shop around for Cursor alternatives.

That’s what led me to spend a bunch of time testing some of the most promising options out there. I wanted to find the best tools for different kinds of teams and workflows heading into 2025. And while I was deep in the weeds with these coding assistants, I had a bit of a lightbulb moment: the same AI principles that help developers ship code faster can do the same for other teams, like customer support.

What’s the big deal with Cursor anyway?

At its heart, Cursor is a version of VS Code that has been rebuilt with AI at its core. This means you get that familiar, powerful environment, but the AI features feel like they belong there, not like they were just tacked on. The main reason people love it is how smoothly it weaves AI into the daily grind of coding.

Features like a project-aware AI chat, instant inline edits with a quick "Cmd+K", and an "agentic" mode that can tweak things across multiple files make common tasks feel almost automatic. Need to whip up a new component, refactor a messy function, or figure out a tricky bug? Cursor is built for that. Its popularity is down to this straightforward, user-friendly experience that actually delivers on the promise of faster, smarter coding.

Why look for Cursor alternatives?

Despite all the good things, I’ve hit a few snags with Cursor, and it turns out I’m not the only one. After poking around in forums and chatting with other devs, a few common reasons for looking elsewhere kept coming up.

Is anyone else getting anxious about the usage-based pricing on Cursor? I had a heavy week of debugging and my bill was way higher than I expected. Love the tool, but the unpredictable costs are making me shop around for alternatives.

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• Those unpredictable bills. This is a major one. Cursor’s pro plan uses usage-based pricing for its top-tier models like Claude 3.5 Sonnet. While they’re powerful, a busy week of refactoring can lead to a bill that’s much higher than you expected. For teams trying to stick to a budget, that kind of surprise is a real headache.

• A limited view of your project. Cursor does a decent job understanding the file you’re currently in, but its context can feel a bit narrow when you’re working in a massive monorepo or a complicated microservices setup. You can manually add files to its context, but that slows you down, which kind of defeats the point.

• Not quite enterprise-ready. For teams in regulated fields or those with strict security rules, Cursor’s cloud-based system can be a dealbreaker. The lack of deep support for on-premise models or CI/CD integrations means it doesn’t always fit neatly into established company workflows.

• The pull of open-source. Let’s be honest, many developers just prefer the transparency and flexibility of open-source tools. The freedom to host it yourself, use local models, and bend the tool to your will is a big reason to look beyond closed-source products.

How I rated the best Cursor alternatives

To keep my comparison fair and practical, I judged each tool on a few things that really matter when you’re coding day in and day out:

• Core AI features: How well does it handle the basics? I looked at code generation, in-editor chat, and whether it could make changes across multiple files.

• Context management: Can it see the whole picture? I tested how well it understood the project beyond a single file and if it could pull in info from external docs.

• User experience and control: Is it a pain to set up? Does it give power users the deep control they need?

• Pricing model: Is it predictable? I compared flat-rate plans to usage-based ones and looked for free or open-source options.

• Who it’s for: Is this best for a solo dev, a small team, or a big company?

At a glance: Comparing the top Cursor alternatives in 2025

Here’s a quick rundown of how the main contenders compare.

The 5 best Cursor alternatives for developers in 2025

After spending quality time with each tool, here’s my detailed take on the best Cursor alternatives you can start using today.

1. Zed

Zed isn’t just another editor playing dress-up as VS Code; it’s a completely new code editor built from scratch in Rust. The first thing you’ll notice is that it’s fast. Like, seriously fast. Zed is built for performance and teamwork, with native AI features and real-time collaboration that feels like you’re in a Google Doc. It feels like an editor from the future, where speed and pairing up are top priorities.

• What I liked: The performance is incredible, the built-in real-time collaboration is great for pair programming, and it’s fully open-source.

• What to watch out for: The platform is still new, so the extension library is much smaller than VS Code’s. Windows support is still in the works, which could be a no-go for some teams.

• Pricing: Zed is currently free, but the team has plans to add paid features for teams down the road.

2. Windsurf

Windsurf is all about a polished, simple experience that just works. It’s a solid pick if you like Cursor’s agentic skills but want a cleaner interface. Its main feature, "Cascade," automatically figures out the context it needs from your code and can even run terminal commands for you. One of my favorite things is that it writes AI-generated changes directly to your files, so you can see your dev server update in real-time before you even accept the changes.

• What I liked: The UI is very clean and intuitive, the agentic mode is great for people new to AI coders, and that real-time preview of changes is a fantastic little workflow boost.

• What to watch out for: It’s a closed-source tool. The pricing, which is based on "model flow action credits," can be a bit confusing and might lead to the same unpredictable costs you see with Cursor.

• Pricing: Starts at $15/user/month.

3. Tabnine

Tabnine goes in a different direction. It focuses on doing one thing extremely well: AI code completion. It puts privacy, speed, and performance first, making it an excellent choice for teams with strict security or compliance rules. The option to deploy a self-hosted model on your own servers or even run it totally offline is a huge plus. It’s less of an "AI agent" and more of a super-smart autocomplete that doesn’t spy on your data.

• What I liked: It works completely offline, supports private and self-hosted models, and gives you fast, snappy completions that actually learn from your code.

• What to watch out for: It’s almost entirely focused on code completion, so you won’t get the chat or refactoring features you find in other tools. Its context is usually limited to the file you’re in.

• Pricing: Pro plans start at $39/user/month, with custom enterprise plans available if you want to deploy your own model.

4. Continue.dev

For anyone who wants complete control and the ability to tinker, Continue.dev is the answer. It’s a fully open-source extension for VS Code and JetBrains that lets you build your own AI coding assistant from the ground up. You can connect it to any LLM you want, whether that’s a cloud API like GPT-4o or a local model running on your machine through Ollama. Its standout feature is how it uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to index your entire codebase and external documentation, which results in incredibly accurate and context-aware answers.

• What I liked: It’s completely open-source and super customizable, supports local models for total privacy, and its RAG-based documentation indexing is the best I’ve seen.

• What to watch out for: Since it’s a VS Code extension, it takes more setup than an all-in-one IDE. It provides the building blocks, but you’re the one who has to put them together.

• Pricing: Free and open-source.

5. Void

Void markets itself as the true open-source alternative to Cursor. It’s also a fork of VS Code, so it feels familiar right away, but it’s built around privacy and user control. Unlike other tools that send your data through their own servers, Void connects your editor directly to your chosen LLM provider. This means your code and your prompts stay between you and the model, which is a massive win for privacy.

• What I liked: It’s fully open-source, keeps your data private by not routing it through a central backend, and lets you use any LLM provider you like.

• What to watch out for: Since it’s a fork maintained by a smaller team, it can sometimes lag behind the latest VS Code updates. The community is still growing, so finding support might not be as easy as with more established tools.

• Pricing: Free and open-source.

This video provides a comprehensive ranking and review of the top 10 Cursor AI alternatives available for developers in 2025.

Beyond code: What if your support team had an AI agent?

After digging into all these developer tools, it hit me that they’re all solving the same core problem: they automate complex, knowledge-heavy, repetitive tasks so that smart people can focus on more important work.

But developers aren’t the only ones stuck doing this kind of stuff. Think about your customer support team. They spend their days answering the same questions, digging through messy knowledge bases, and manually tagging tickets. It’s the exact same pattern, just in a different department.

This is where an AI agent designed just for support can really make a difference. A coding assistant needs to understand a codebase, and a great support agent needs to understand your company’s collective knowledge: past support tickets, help articles, internal wikis, and product docs.

Introducing eesel AI: The "Cursor" for customer service

This is precisely what eesel AI was built to do. It’s an AI platform that works as an autonomous agent inside the helpdesk you already use, whether that’s Zendesk, Freshdesk, or Intercom. You don’t have to switch tools; you just give your current one a serious upgrade.

It solves the same kinds of problems for support teams that developers are trying to solve with Cursor alternatives:

• Get started in minutes, not months. Forget about long sales calls and mandatory demos. With eesel AI, you can sign up, connect your helpdesk in one click, and have a functioning AI agent in just a few minutes. It’s a self-serve platform that gives you control from the very beginning.

This flowchart shows the quick, self-serve implementation process for the eesel AI agent, a key feature for teams looking for easy setup.::

• You’re in complete control. You shouldn’t let a black box manage your customer support. The workflow engine in eesel AI gives you fine-grained control to decide exactly which tickets the AI handles. You can tweak its personality, set up custom actions (like looking up order info from Shopify), and limit its knowledge base to make sure it never goes off-topic.

This image displays the settings interface in eesel AI where users can define specific guardrails and rules for the AI agent to follow, ensuring complete control over its behavior.::

• Test it out with confidence. This is a big one. eesel AI has a powerful simulation mode that lets you test your AI on thousands of your past tickets before it ever interacts with a live customer. You get an accurate forecast of its performance, resolution rate, and cost savings, so you can go live without any guesswork.

A screenshot of the eesel AI simulation mode, which forecasts performance and cost savings based on historical data before the AI goes live.::

Tips for choosing the right Cursor alternatives for your team

Whether you’re looking for a coding assistant or a support agent, the process for picking the right one is pretty similar. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

• Figure out the job to be done. A tool that’s amazing at one thing is usually just okay at another. A great code editor isn’t going to resolve support tickets, and a support agent won’t help you refactor a legacy app. Pick a tool that was built specifically for the workflow you want to improve.

• Think about your privacy needs. Security should always be a top priority. For developers, open-source tools like Continue.dev or privacy-focused options like Tabnine are great for keeping code on your own machine. For support teams dealing with sensitive customer data, a platform like eesel AI offers enterprise-grade security, EU data residency, and zero-retention policies.

• Consider the total cost. Look beyond the monthly subscription fee. How much time and engineering effort will it take to set up and maintain the tool? A self-serve platform like eesel AI starts providing value almost immediately, without needing a team of engineers to get it off the ground.

Pick the right AI tool for the job

The world of AI agents is moving incredibly fast, and these tools are unlocking massive productivity boosts for all kinds of teams. For developers, the hunt for Cursor alternatives has surfaced some amazing open-source and specialized tools like Zed, Continue.dev, and Void that offer more power, privacy, and control.

But my biggest takeaway is this: you have to match the tool to the task. If you’re a developer, one of the code editors on this list is definitely going to make your life easier. And if you want to bring that same smart automation to your customer service or IT teams, eesel AI is the obvious choice.

See what an AI agent can do for your support team

Ready to automate… frontline support questions? eesel AI plugs into your existing tools in minutes, learns from your past conversations, and puts you in full control of your support automation.

Start your free trial today or book a demo to see it in action.