Cursor vs Zed
Zed uniquely has 7 features · Cursor uniquely has 3 features.
| Cursor | Zed | |
|---|---|---|
| Company | ||
| Founded | 2022 | 2021 |
| HQ | San Francisco, USA | San Francisco, USA |
| AI model | Multiple — OpenAI GPT-5.5, Anthropic Claude/Opus, Google Gemini, Grok, Cursor proprietary models | Claude (Anthropic), GPT (OpenAI), Gemini (Google), DeepSeek, and others via bring-your-own-key |
| User base | 500K+ (Fortune 500 adoption, 40,000+ NVIDIA engineers cited) | — |
| Platforms | macOS, Windows, Linux, CLI, Slack, GitHub | macOS |
| Languages | All major programming languages — Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Rust, Go, Java, C/C++, Ruby, and 50+ more | Most major programming languages via LSP and extensions |
| Pricing | ||
| Pricing model | — | Freemium |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes — Hobby plan free with no credit card required | Yes |
| Starting price | $20/mo (Pro) | $0/mo |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom — order forms available at 25+ seats (contact sales@zed.dev) |
| All plans | HobbyFreePro (Individual)$20/moPro+ (Individual)$60/moUltra (Individual)$200/moTeams (Standard)$40/mo/userTeams (Premium)$120/mo/userEnterpriseCustom | PersonalFreePro$10/moBusiness$30/seat/mo |
| Positioning | ||
| Best for | Software developers and engineering teams building complex, large-scale software with AI-assisted and agentic coding workflows | Developers seeking a fast, AI-powered collaborative code editor |
| Differentiator | Cursor is a full AI-native IDE (VS Code fork) with agentic, parallel, and cloud-based coding agents that autonomously build, test, and deploy features end-to-end with deep codebase indexing and multi-model frontier access. | Next-generation code editor with built-in AI edit predictions and real-time collaboration |
| Competitors | GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, Tabnine, Amazon CodeWhisperer, Codeium | VS Code, Cursor, Neovim, JetBrains IDEs, Windsurf |
| Features | ||
| Data Governance Controls | — | ✓ |
| External Agent Support (Claude, Codex Cli) | — | ✓ |
| Org Wide AI Model Policies | — | ✓ |
| Role Based Access Controls | — | ✓ |
| Unlimited Edit Predictions (Pro+) | — | ✓ |
| Usage Based Billing | — | ✓ |
| Cli Support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Code Completion | ✓ | ✓ |
| Code Generation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Code Review | ✓ | ✓ |
| Codebase Indexing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Debugging | ✓ | ✓ |
| Git Integration | ✓ | ✓ |
| IDE Plugins | ✓ | ✕ |
| Multi Language Support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Refactoring | ✓ | ✓ |
| Security Scanning | ✓ | — |
| Self Hosted Option | — | ✕ |
| Team Features | ✓ | ✓ |
| Test Generation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Integrations | ||
| API Access | — | ✓ |
| Github Integration | ✓ | ✓ |
| Jetbrains Plugin | ✕ | ✕ |
| Key Integrations | GitHub, Slack, Vercel, Snowflake (via agents), MCP (Model Context Protocol) tools, Automations/webhooks | Anthropic Claude, OpenAI GPT, Google Gemini, Amazon Bedrock, DeepSeek, GitHub Copilot, LM Studio, Mistral, Ollama, OpenRouter, Vercel, Codex CLI, Claude Agent |
| Vscode Extension | ✓ | ✕ |