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AI Tool Comparison
Amazon Q Developer vs Windsurf
A side-by-side breakdown to help you pick the right tool for your workflow.
Amazon Q Developer
An AWS coding assistant offering inline suggestions, chat, and agentic tasks across IDEs and the console. AWS is sunsetting Q Developer in favor of Kiro — new signups closed May 2026.
Coding
freemium
Windsurf
An agentic coding IDE pairing an editor with autonomous coding agents — renamed Devin Desktop after Cognition AI's acquisition, keeping the same editor and Claude/GPT/Gemini model choice.
Coding
freemium
Bottom Line
Windsurf edges ahead on rating (4.7 vs 4.3), but the right pick still comes down to which workflow you're running.
Choose Amazon Q Developer if…
Coding
Choose Windsurf if…
Coding
| Attribute | Amazon Q Developer | Windsurf |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Coding | Coding |
| Pricing | freemium | freemium |
| Pricing Detail | Being retired — support ends April 2027, migrate to Kiro | Free / $20/mo Pro / $40/seat Teams / $200/mo Max |
| Rating |
Key Features
Amazon Q Developer
- Code generation
- Security vulnerability scanning
- AWS service integration
- IDE plugins
- Reference tracking
Windsurf
- Cascade AI agent
- Multi-step task execution
- Full codebase awareness
- Terminal integration
- VS Code based
Pros
Amazon Q Developer
- •Best for AWS-heavy projects
- •Built-in security scanner
- •Free for individual use
- •Tracks open-source references
Windsurf
- •Excellent autonomous coding agent
- •Tracks what it changed and why
- •Good free tier
- •Handles complex multi-file refactors
Cons
Amazon Q Developer
- Less impressive outside AWS ecosystem
- Not as capable as Cursor for complex tasks
- JetBrains support is limited
Windsurf
- Agent can go off-track on complex tasks
- Newer product with occasional instability
- Less plugin ecosystem than VS Code
