Continue vs Windsurf
A side-by-side comparison of Continue and Windsurf — pricing, free tiers, and who each tool is genuinely best for.
| Tagline | Open-source AI coding assistant for VS Code and JetBrains | Agentic IDE with Cascade flows that keep you and the AI in sync |
| Category | AI Coding | AI Coding |
| Pricing | Free and open-source (self-hosted with your own API keys); hosted plans reportedly from ~$10/mo — check continue.dev | Free tier; Pro from ~$15/user/mo; Teams/Enterprise tiers above |
| Free tier | ||
| Best for | Developers who want a fully open-source, self-hosted AI assistant with control over which models and data leave their machine. | Developers wanting an AI-native IDE with tightly integrated agentic flows and a generous free tier. |
| Not for | Developers who prefer a fully managed, no-configuration coding assistant out of the box. | Teams that prefer to keep their existing editor and just bolt on completions. |
| Use cases | Bring-your-own-model AI chat Inline autocomplete with local LLMs Codebase-aware Q&A Custom AI workflows | Agentic multi-step edits Codebase-aware autocomplete Feature implementation Refactoring AI chat over your project |
| Visit Continue | Visit Windsurf |