Zed is the better app overall, scoring 9.1 to 8.6. Zed wins on 3 of the 5 scores, Cursor on 1, with 1 tied.
Developers who want a quick, modern editor with AI and pair programming built in
Developers who want AI help built into every part of their editor
Score by score
The details
| Feature | Zed | Cursor |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Developer Tools | Developer Tools |
| Category rank | #3 of 10 | #7 of 10 |
| Developer | Zed Industries | Anysphere (SpaceX) |
| Pricing | Free + paid plans | Free + paid plans |
| Usable for free | Yes | Yes |
| iPhone & iPad | — | ✓ |
| Mac | ✓ | ✓ |
| Windows | ✓ | ✓ |
| Linux | ✓ | ✓ |
Common questions
Is Zed better than Cursor?
Zed is the better app overall, scoring 9.1 to 8.6. Zed wins on 3 of the 5 scores, Cursor on 1, with 1 tied.
Which is cheaper, Zed or Cursor?
Zed: Free with your own API keys; Pro is $10 a month with $5 of AI tokens included. Cursor: Free tier; Plus $8/month (Grok models only), Premium $30/month adds cloud agents. On value for money, Zed scores higher.
Do Zed and Cursor work on the same devices?
Only Cursor runs on iPhone & iPad.
Which is more private, Zed or Cursor?
Zed scores higher on privacy (8.6/10). Telemetry can be turned off in Settings, source code never goes into server telemetry, and Zed doesn't train on your data unless you opt in. AI providers are on zero-retention terms.
Strengths and weaknesses
Zed
- Native, GPU-rendered and quick to open
- Free and open source, with bring-your-own AI keys
- Collaboration and AI agents built in
- Hosted AI use is billed beyond the $5 included
- Still missing requests like smooth scrolling
- No built-in test runner integration yet
Zed is a code editor written in Rust with its own GPU-rendered interface instead of Electron, built to feel instant. You get real-time multiplayer editing, a debugger, Git, SSH remoting, edit predictions and parallel AI agents that can run Claude, Codex and others. It reached 1.0 in April 2026 and runs on Mac, Windows and Linux. Bring your own API keys for free, or pay for hosted AI. Some long-requested features, like smooth scrolling, are still missing.
Full Zed review
Cursor
- Deep AI help built into every part of the editor
- Familiar VS Code base with easy migration
- Cloud agents keep working while you are away
- Third-party models cost extra on top of your plan
- Plans bundle Grok and X features you may not want
- Code is processed by cloud AI models
Cursor is the AI code editor many developers switch to first. It is built on VS Code, so your setup carries over, and it adds fast completions, agents that edit across many files, and cloud agents that run whole projects in the background. Since SpaceX bought it, plans center on Grok models, and Claude or GPT usage is billed separately. Turn on Privacy Mode for sensitive work.
Full Cursor review
