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Gabe Perez

Cursor or Claude Code?

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I love @Cursor. It's enabled me to build (vibe code) so many web apps, sites, extensions, and little things quickly that 1. bring me joy and 2. help me with work or realize personal projects.

However... I'm seeing a TON of movement around @Claude by Anthropic's Claude Code. I haven't personally tried it but it's apparently insane (and can also be expensive?)

I'm curious. Should I switch? What are you currently using? Or do they both have their own use case. I right now like cursor because I can build directly in a GitHub repo or locally and it helps me learn my way around an IDE.

Looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts!

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The thread debates whether developers should stick with Cursor or switch to Claude Code, with a loose consensus emerging: Claude Code often delivers higher-quality, first-try results, but Cursor excels for IDE-native control, visibility, and cost efficiency.
Several makers reported moving from Cursor to Claude Code for accuracy and fewer iterations—one even cites a ~30% reduction in rework across users (syedahmedz), who also notes a VS Code extension for Claude Code (follow-up). Others echo that Claude Code feels “next level” on the Claude Max plan (sharvin_zlife) and consistently strong in terminal-centric workflows (martin_rue, kyle_gani). Still, price and CLI heaviness are recurring drawbacks (steveb).
Cursor loyalists value its IDE diff view, GitHub repo flow, and hands-on learning, preferring a UI over terminal for control and understanding changes (hi_caicai; priyanka_gosai1). Some blend tools: run Claude Code inside VS Code/Cursor until hitting token limits, then fall back to Cursor (_tijs); use Cursor for planning and MCP tools, then Claude Code for execution (gyasi_sutton). Budget-minded alternatives like Cline + Gemini also surfaced (conduit_design, leandro_sardi).
Takeaway: If you prioritize accuracy, CLI integration, and faster iteration, Claude Code shines; if you value IDE-native control, visual diffs, and steady velocity on small projects, Cursor remains a great choice—many find the best setup is using both, depending on task complexity, budget, and workflow.
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Cursor is made for coding but Claude isn't. And Cx file explore is made for organizing files, which can be download from cxexplore.

Ced Funches

Cursor has allowed me to be able to build with speed on small projects. Claude Code is too expensive, especially if you are not in mastery of what you want. If you have a set plan, it may be worth it.

Tijs Teulings

Claude code has been available in the default Claude plan for a while now. Limited tokens per day but enough to get shit done. It integrates quite well with both vscode and cursor so I actually use both. When you run the Claude command in a cursor terminal you can easily set it up with the dedicated Claude code command which will add a little Claude button to your editor. Tapping it will give you an extra Claude window. I tend to use that until I run out of tokens and then I switch to cursor to continue. That way I never have to do the pay as you go and I can save myself from vibe coding myself to bankruptcy 😅

Martin Rue

Context: I've been a software engineer for a fairly long time, and I have a workflow that's hard-won and works well for me. I use the terminal heavily. I write code in vim.

So, I'm a big fan of Claude Code because it's a CLI that sits in a terminal window and doesn't demand I change my existing workflow. I like this approach.

Claude Code produces good results for me, and I love some of the recent updates, like being able to use sub agents. Anthropic are doing awesome work with Claude Code.

But as others say, it depends what workflow works for you.

Natan Volkovich

Using both side by side for months now - I tend to use cursor more when I want to be more involved in the code review and editing process whereas claude excels as an on demand system admin and general coder where I'm ok to let it handle specifics.

Hope that helps!

gyasi sutton

I’ve been using both myself. Usually I’ll use cursor to build a PRD or plan a task and honestly it’s a lot easier to switch in MCP tools in cursor than it is Claude code but when I’m finished planning or researching, Claude code is definitely the ace in the hole. And I gotten super accurate results using a Gemini mcp using google’s grounded search, it’s almost like context7 but will even get the latest docs of pretty much any library. I’ve also experimented with OpenAI codex because it can use open source models and the Gwen models work OK for smaller tasks.

Why not use Copilot (Github) in VSCode and with the Pro plan you can access Claude Sonnet 4 which has an agent mode ?
Claude Sonnet 4 is not included free in the Pro plan but Copilot gives 300 premium requests to use it every month with that plan, which seems fair.

I haven't tested Cursor and Claude Code, but this stack seems equivalent.
Anyone has an idea ?

Drake Thomsen

I've been bouncing around vibe coder tools for the past couple months and Claude Code is my happy spot right now, with @Zencoder being a very close second.

Even on the $20 a month Claude Pro plan, the usage limit is fairly generous and if you run into it, you just have to wait a couple hours for the limit to reset. Only downside is that your limit is a shared pool between the Claude app and Claude Code. If you need more usage than that then you probably are making enough to justify an upgrade to the $100 a month Claude Max plan.

Kiran

I am using the cursor with Claude Sonnet 4, and it's really good compared to other models. But I am hitting the rate limit frequently and can't use it anymore. I cancelled my subscription with Cursor and am looking for alternatives.

I also tried Gemine 2.5 Pro and o3 models, but they are not as good as Sonnet 4.

I signed up for Google Vertex AI where you get a free trial with €256 credits, where you can use the Sonnet 4 and Opus. I'm going to try that, currently am stuck in setup. The documentation is not very good

Katrina Rodriguez

I love Cursor too, but lately it feels like it's slowing down and making wide-sweeping code changes for simple things. I've heard Claude Code is really good and more lightweight. I pay for Cursor and Claude and think it will be nice to go all in on just Claude and go back to coding in VS code. Cursor also has to make an API request to Claude via its servers so that can be slower. Makes sense to go direct to the source with Claude Code.

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