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AI Tool Comparison
Cline vs Windsurf
A side-by-side breakdown to help you pick the right tool for your workflow.
Cline
Run an AI coding agent inside your editor that reads and edits files, runs terminal commands, and executes multi-step development tasks with human approval at each step. Open source with 4.5M+ installs.
Coding
free
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
Cline and Windsurf are rated evenly — the right pick comes down to which workflow you're running.
Choose Cline if…
Autonomous Coding
Choose Windsurf if…
Coding
| Attribute | Cline | Windsurf |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Coding | Coding |
| Pricing | free | freemium |
| Pricing Detail | Free (bring your own API key) / $9.99/mo ClinePass beta | Free / $20/mo Pro / $40/seat Teams / $200/mo Max |
| Rating |
Key Features
Cline
- Full file system access
- Terminal command execution
- Browser use for research
- Multi-model support
- Task planning and iteration
- Works in VS Code
Windsurf
- Cascade AI agent
- Multi-step task execution
- Full codebase awareness
- Terminal integration
- VS Code based
Pros
Cline
- •Genuinely autonomous, completes multi-step tasks without hand-holding
- •Open-source with active community
- •Any model that supports the API works
Windsurf
- •Excellent autonomous coding agent
- •Tracks what it changed and why
- •Good free tier
- •Handles complex multi-file refactors
Cons
Cline
- API costs can be significant for complex tasks
- Autonomous execution requires careful review before running in production codebases
Windsurf
- Agent can go off-track on complex tasks
- Newer product with occasional instability
- Less plugin ecosystem than VS Code