It has been a few months since I changed my programming and coding software to Cursor, from VS Code. I first heard about it on a Lex Friedman podcast episode where Cursor creators was interviewed. I remember being excited after listening to that episode. Howver, I thought there had to be some issues because I used a fair amount of plugins for my VS Code install and I would hate to lose those. However, to my surprise, everything continues to work with Cursor.
About Me
I am a professional developer (solo entrepreneur) working with code almost every day programming. I code websites and web games. I've been full time at this since 2018.
Before Cursor
Before I started using cursor I had to go to my browser to use my AI assistant. I used ChatGPT o1 and o1 preview. I was pretty happy with o1 preview for larger coding challenges. It was not ideal to have to tab out to the browser so much though. In Cursor the AI would be integrated and I was curious what that ment in practice. Let me share my experience.
Cursor vs VS Code
After installing Cursor I've not used VS Code at all, except for some minor things, modifying a file, where it opened by default. I feel like I could unsinstall VS Code now, but I'll keep it in case it comes in handy. I don't expect it to though.
Instead of my previous workflow of tabbing between the ChatGPT interface in the browser and VS Code, I now have the AI assistant built into the IDE. This saves time and makes work more productive and fun. I actually cancelled my paid ChatGPT subscription recently after finding I do not need it anymore as I rather just use the AI within Cursor.
As Cursor costs $20/mo and ChatGPT costs $25/mo I am actually saving money this way and I have access to more models as well. This is a win-win situation for me as a customer.
Claude vs ChatGPT
Even though Cursor comes with the ChatGPT models, the default model is Claude. At first I was a bit sceptical and changed it to ChatGPT often, however that rarely happens anymore. I now find Claude quicker and better than ChatGPT for coding assistance.
While ChatGPT o1 and o1 spends time thinking, Claude just starts chatting almost instantly, making the conversation flow more natural.
Cursor Pros and Cons
Here's a list of the main pros to using Cursor:
- Affordable, I am saving money compared with my previous AI subscription
- Works with VS Code plugins and themes
- No hassle to change from VS Code
- Increased productivity. The integration of the AI let's you easily add your code both from files and the terminal to the build in AI chat interface. The auto complete is also powerful and often surprisingly smart, often producing completion of a fair bit of code with one click.
And the cons:
- Auto completion can be a bit annoying when it is wrong.
Conclusion
By now, it is probably obvious that I have been converted from a VS Code to a Cursor enthusiast. You can do everything that you could do in VS Code, in addition to so much more.
