This article provides a comparison between Cursor and Copilot, two AI-powered development tools designed to help developers write code faster and more efficiently.
Cursor is a modern development environment built on top of VS Code and is context-aware, supporting multi-line tab completion and offers Composer feature to directly edit files based on the code generated in the chat.
Copilot is an AI pair programmer built on top of OpenAI's Codex model and can generate more complex code snippets and entire functions based on brief descriptions or a few lines of code.
Cursor's and GitHub Copilot's tab completion features work differently with Cursor using advanced machine learning models to suggest code based on the current context while Copilot uses Codex model to provide in-line code completions and doesn't support multi-line tab completion.
Cursor supports multiple models and custom API keys for all providers, whereas GitHub Copilot currently supports gpt-4o, claude-3.5-sonnet and o1 models and no custom API keys are supported.
Cursor offers basic features at free tier and paid tiers for more advanced features and better performance. GitHub Copilot is a paid service with plans for individuals, teams, and enterprises and offers a free trial for new users.
Cursor is a great choice if you prefer a traditional development environment with AI features and if you need flexibility in choosing AI models or want to leverage your own API keys. GitHub Copilot is a good choice if you want to stick with your current IDE or desire a more streamlined code completion experience.
Choosing between Cursor and GitHub Copilot often comes down to workflow preferences and specific needs, and using both can provide redundancy or leverage specific strengths for separate tasks.
Ultimately, the best tool to use depends on specific needs and preferences and the article advises exploring official documentation on both products to learn more about their features and capabilities.
In conclusion, both Cursor and Copilot are powerful AI-powered development tools ideal for modern software development and can be a great help to developers in enhancing their work productivity and efficiency.