If you’ve spent any time in developer circles over the past year or two, you’ve almost certainly heard someone evangelizing Cursor. It sits at the centre of a very loud debate: is this the future of coding, or just GitHub Copilot with better marketing? This review is for developers — from hobbyists to professionals — who are trying to decide whether to actually switch their daily driver editor, and whether the subscription cost is worth it for real-world work.
What it does
Cursor is a fork of Visual Studio Code built by Anysphere, meaning it looks, feels, and behaves almost identically to VS Code right out of the box. Your existing extensions, keybindings, and themes carry over with minimal friction. The key difference is that AI assistance isn’t bolted on as a plugin — it’s woven into the editor’s core. The flagship feature is its multi-line autocomplete, which predicts not just the next line but entire code blocks based on context from your whole project, not just the open file.
The most-discussed feature is the “Composer” (now called Agent mode in newer versions), which lets you describe a feature or a refactor in plain English and have Cursor execute multi-file edits across your codebase. It can read context from your repo, apply diffs across several files simultaneously, and propose terminal commands — all without leaving the editor. There’s also an inline chat that lets you highlight a block of code and talk to it directly, which is genuinely useful for asking “why is this slow” or “rewrite this in a more idiomatic way.”
Cursor supports a range of underlying models — including GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet and Opus, and their own custom models — and lets you pick which one to use for different tasks. Power users can configure it quite granularly. Teams at software companies, solo developers building SaaS products, and bootcamp graduates trying to punch above their weight are all common users.
Pricing
Cursor has a free tier (“Hobby”) that includes a limited number of completions and chat interactions per month — enough to evaluate it but not enough for daily professional use. The Pro plan runs around USD $20/month as of mid-2025, which unlocks substantially higher usage limits and access to faster and more capable models. A Business tier is available for teams with centralized billing and privacy controls. Pricing varies by tier; check [cursor.com](https://cursor.com) for current rates, especially since the model access and tier structure has been evolving.
For Canadian users: pricing is in USD, so expect to absorb the exchange rate. At current rates that Pro plan is closer to $27–28 CAD per month — not a dealbreaker, but worth knowing before you budget it.
What it does well
- Codebase-aware context: Unlike Copilot, which has historically focused on the current file, Cursor indexes your whole project and uses that context meaningfully. This matters a lot on larger codebases.
- Agent/multi-file edits: Being able to describe a feature and have it touch multiple files in one go is genuinely a workflow shift. It’s not perfect, but it reduces the tedious scaffolding work significantly.
- VS Code compatibility: The migration cost is almost zero. If you’re already on VS Code, you can be productive in Cursor within minutes.
- Model flexibility: Choosing between Claude Opus for complex reasoning and a faster model for quick completions is a practical advantage over tools locked to one provider.
- Tab completion quality: The multi-line tab completion is, by most accounts, better than Copilot’s for a lot of use cases. It feels more like a smart colleague than a slightly-too-eager autocomplete.
Where it falls short
- Still has rough edges around large refactors: Agent mode is impressive but can confidently make wrong assumptions across files, requiring careful review. It’s not “trust and merge” territory yet.
- Subscription anxiety: Your usage is metered, and it’s easy to burn through your monthly quota faster than expected if you’re using Agent mode heavily. The hard stops mid-project are jarring.
- Privacy and data handling: Cursor sends your code to third-party model providers. For developers working on proprietary or regulated codebases, this is a meaningful concern. The Business plan offers better controls, but it’s not air-gapped.
- Context window limitations still bite: On very large monorepos or complex multi-module projects, the context it can actually use gets clipped in ways that produce subtly wrong suggestions.
- It’s still a fork, not the original: Long-term, there’s a bet you’re making that Cursor keeps pace with VS Code updates and that Anysphere remains viable. That’s not a guaranteed outcome.
Who should use it
Cursor makes the most sense for developers who are already VS Code users, are working on projects where they can accept the code-to-cloud tradeoff, and want AI that understands their whole project rather than just the current file. It’s particularly strong for solo founders building products quickly, developers in fast-moving startups, and anyone doing a lot of greenfield work where scaffolding and boilerplate are friction points.
Who should skip it
If you work in an environment with strict data governance — financial services, healthcare, government — you probably shouldn’t be sending code to Anysphere’s servers without a very careful look at the terms and your organization’s security policies. Similarly, if you’re a JetBrains user (IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm), switching to a VS Code fork creates more friction than benefit; look at JetBrains AI Assistant or Junie instead. And if you genuinely only need autocomplete and not the agentic features, GitHub Copilot at the same price point is a more mature, Microsoft-backed option.
Verdict
Cursor is not hype. It’s a meaningfully better coding experience than vanilla VS Code for most AI-assisted workflows, and the codebase-aware context is a real differentiator. That said, it’s not magic, and the Agent mode requires enough oversight that it speeds you up rather than replacing your judgment. At USD $20/month (~$28 CAD), it’s a reasonable bet for professionals who’ll use it daily — a harder sell for casual use given the metered limits.
How to try it
Download Cursor for free at [cursor.com](https://cursor.com) — the Hobby tier gives you enough usage to get a genuine feel for the tab completion and chat features before committing to Pro.
Reviewed by AIToolPickr – part of the Auburn AI network. We do not accept paid placements; this review is independent. AIToolPickr may earn an affiliate commission if you sign up for a paid plan via our links, at no cost to you.
Try Cursor: https://cursor.com
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