Cursor vs. Microsoft Visual Studio Code

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cursor
Score 9.6 out of 10
N/A
Cursor is an IDE and code editor built for programming with AI. Cursor includes an autocomplete that predicts the next edit. Once enabled, it is always on and will suggest edits to code across multiple lines.
$20
per month
Microsoft Visual Studio Code
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft offers Visual Studio Code, a text editor that supports code editing, debugging, IntelliSense syntax highlighting, and other features.
$0
Pricing
CursorMicrosoft Visual Studio Code
Editions & Modules
Pro
$20
per month
Teams
$40
per month per user
Pro+
$60
per month
Ultra
$200
per month
Enterprise
Custom
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
CursorMicrosoft Visual Studio Code
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsEvery plan includes a set amount of model usage. Additional usage is based on the models and features used. The Bugbot add-on is available at $40 per month, per user, or with Custom pricing for Enterprise customers. A discount is available for annual billing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
CursorMicrosoft Visual Studio Code
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CursorMicrosoft Visual Studio Code
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User Ratings
CursorMicrosoft Visual Studio Code
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.5
(90 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.4
(2 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.5
(7 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.7
(23 ratings)
User Testimonials
CursorMicrosoft Visual Studio Code
Likelihood to Recommend
Anysphere, Inc.
It is great for non-coders who have some technology knowledge and are comfortable following Cursor's instructions to build and deploy a webapp. Good prompting skills are needed. It is not for those who are not comfortable looking at raw codes. Cursor also is not very creative when it comes to user interface design.
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Microsoft
Microsoft Visual Studio Code is highly recommended for the development of systems and / or complex applications entrusted to work teams under a specific methodology, and its use is also recommended for the maintenance of previously developed applications.
It is not recommended as a learning environment for developers with little experience as the learning curve would be too high
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Pros
Anysphere, Inc.
  • state-of-art IDE
  • Best LLMs one click away
  • Code suggestions very easy to use
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Microsoft
  • Very accessible -- it's compatible with all platforms and environments, free to install, and fast to open
  • Strong native support for many languages, and very strong extensibility to provide advanced language features
  • Git integration is top-notch, often displaying a better history, diff, and merge interface that is otherwise available in version control systems
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Cons
Anysphere, Inc.
  • Very complex user interface
  • As it generate codes for additional features, it sometimes affects existing funtions
  • Black interface hard to read
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Microsoft
  • Lack of button bar like ones found in Visual Studio.
  • Lack of integrated help that could link to YouTube, Channel 9, or other Microsoft videos on how to learn about features.
  • Integration with Team Foundation Server.
  • Would like to see it having some sort of integration into a Web API testing harness.
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Likelihood to Renew
Anysphere, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Solid tool that provides everything you need to develop most types of applications. The only reason not a 10 is that if you are doing large distributed teams on Enterprise level, Professional does provide more tools to support that and would be worth the cost.
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Usability
Anysphere, Inc.
Really easy to use; we've been replacing all other IDEs for it now. As it is a fork of Visual Studio Code, we transitioned to it in a very smooth way, and now our development process is faster than ever. It supports a bunch of languages and we don't need to have a webpage with an LLM open now because it is all with Cursor.
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Microsoft
Looking at our current implementation, Microsoft Visual Studio Code is perfect for writing code and performing debug operations. Integration with SVN repository is easy and changes can be tracked effectively. Microsoft Visual Studio Code supports developers to write code productively using syntax check and easy customization. Microsoft Visual Studio Code also provides support for IntelliSense which prompts suggestions for code completion. It is easy to step through code using interactive debugger to inspect the root cause of error quickly.
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Support Rating
Anysphere, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Active development means filing a bug on the GitHub repo typically gets you a response within 4 days. There are plugins for almost everything you need, whether it be linting, Vim emulation, even language servers (which I use to code in Scala). There is well-maintained official documentation. The only thing missing is forums. The closest thing is GitHub issues, which typically has the answers but is hard to sift through -- there are currently 78k issues.
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Alternatives Considered
Anysphere, Inc.
Softr's chat AI is less sophisticated. However, it is great for building simple database-driven webapps. I have used it together with Airtable to build a very simple webapp. It is drag and drop. Vercel V0's chatAI is faster and more friendly. The user interface is also more visually appealing and user friendly. It is comparable to Cursor though I have only used V0 briefly so have not gone through the learning curve.
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Microsoft
[Microsoft] Visual Studio Code beats the competition due to its extensibility. Their robust extensions architecture combined with the plethora of mostly free extensions written by the community can't be beaten. The fact that this tool itself is provided by a world-recognized company, Microsoft, free of charge is phenomenal. The goodwill garnered by them is immeasurable. Other tools I've used were missing features or were just too rigid, too complicated, or too unsophisticated for my liking. The fact that VS Code is easy to mold to my will with the right extensions seals the deal.
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Return on Investment
Anysphere, Inc.
  • Development speed increased at least 25%
  • The result of the final Product is better than before/without it
  • We use it as a standard now
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Microsoft
  • Positive impact on minimizing time wasted by employees with software installation and setup
  • Positive impact on reducing spend on software licensing
  • Positive impact on minimizing time used to manage different applications for different purposes - this performs all of the functions we need in basic coding
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ScreenShots