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Windsurf vs Claude Code
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Last updated
Short answer: pick Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) for this job: Running several coding agents from one IDE. Pick Claude Code for this job: Repo-sized edits from the terminal. Devin Desktop scores 7.3 and is #4 in AI code editors. Claude Code scores 8.3 and is #1 in Coding and CLI agents.
| Compared on | Devin Desktop | Claude Code |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | The Windsurf IDE, renamed, with an agent command center in front. | Anthropic's coding agent for the terminal and supported editors. |
| StackPick job | AI code editors, #4 | Coding and CLI agents, #1 |
| Best for | Running several coding agents from one IDE | Repo-sized edits from the terminal |
| Score | 7.3 | 8.3 |
| Ease / Power / Price / Fit | 7 / 8 / 5 / 8 | 8 / 9 / 6 / 9 |
| Pricing | Check siteExisting Windsurf plans were stated to carry over at the rename. Current prices: check site. | Check siteIncluded with Claude plans and API usage. Current packaging and prices: check site. |
| Also known as | Windsurf | — |
| Visit | Visit | Visit |
Where Devin Desktop fits
Devin Desktop is Cognition's IDE, and the new name for Windsurf as of June 2, 2026. It keeps a full editor that is compatible with Windsurf and VS Code workflows, and puts an Agent Command Center in front for local and cloud agents. Plans were stated to carry over from Windsurf. Current packaging: check site.
Best use cases
- Managing local and cloud agents in one window
- Staying in a VS Code-like editor after the Windsurf rename
- Handing work to Devin and reviewing the diff
Listed strengths
- Windsurf settings, extensions, and in-progress work were part of the rename
- The agent manager is the point of the product, not a side panel
- ACP support means other agents can run in the same desktop
Trade-off: The rename is recent — docs and installers still mention Windsurf in places Pricing: check site
Where Claude Code fits
Claude Code is Anthropic's coding agent. It reads a repository, edits files, and runs commands from the terminal, with editor integrations alongside. It is the pick when you want a strong agent on the current checkout and you are fine living in the terminal for the session.
Best use cases
- Implementing a feature across several files
- Running tests and fixing what they report
- A CLI agent paired with Claude models
Listed strengths
- Works on the repo you already have, in the terminal you already use
- Command execution is part of the loop, not a copy-paste step
- A natural pair with the Anthropic API if the product also calls Claude
Trade-off: You review diffs in a terminal-first workflow Access comes through Claude plans or API usage. Current packaging: check site
Published prices
Prices change. Check the vendor page before you buy. A usage-based or credit-based plan can cost more than the subscription price.
Devin Desktop
- Free. $0 per month (Source · checked ) Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) and Devin Cloud are one subscription. Paid plans include a usage quota. Extra usage is API pricing.
- Pro. $20 per person per month (Source · checked ) Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) and Devin Cloud are one subscription. Paid plans include a usage quota. Extra usage is API pricing.
- Max. $200 per person per month (Source · checked ) Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) and Devin Cloud are one subscription. Paid plans include a usage quota. Extra usage is API pricing.
- Teams. $80 per month plus $40 per person per month (Source · checked ) The pricing page lists $80 a month for the team plan plus $40 a month per full seat. Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) and Devin Cloud are one subscription. Paid plans include a usage quota. Extra usage is API pricing.
Claude Code
- Pro. $20 per person per month (Source · checked ) Claude Code is included and shares this plan's usage limits. Past a limit, usage credits are billed at API rates. $200 per person per year (Source · checked ) Annual charge is $200 billed up front. The page also shows this as $17 a month. Claude Code is included and shares this plan's usage limits. Past a limit, usage credits are billed at API rates.
- Max. $100 per person per month (Source · checked ) Billed monthly. Claude Code is included and shares this plan's usage limits. Past a limit, usage credits are billed at API rates.
- Ultra. $200 per person per month (Source · checked ) Billed monthly. Claude Code is included and shares this plan's usage limits. Past a limit, usage credits are billed at API rates.
- Team Standard. $25 per person per month (Source · checked ) Per seat, for teams of 2 to 150. Claude Code is included and shares this plan's usage limits. Past a limit, usage credits are billed at API rates. $20 per person per month, billed annually (Source · checked ) Listed as $20 per seat a month when billed annually, for teams of 2 to 150. Claude Code is included and shares this plan's usage limits. Past a limit, usage credits are billed at API rates.
- Team Premium. $125 per person per month (Source · checked ) Per seat, for teams of 2 to 150. Claude Code is included and shares this plan's usage limits. Past a limit, usage credits are billed at API rates. $100 per person per month, billed annually (Source · checked ) Listed as $100 per seat a month when billed annually, for teams of 2 to 150. Claude Code is included and shares this plan's usage limits. Past a limit, usage credits are billed at API rates.
- Enterprise. $20 per person per month, billed annually (Source · checked ) Seat fee only: $20 per seat a month, billed annually, 20 seat minimum. Usage is billed at API rates on top.
Where the score comes from
The 1.0 gap comes from ease (7 vs 8) and power (8 vs 9) and price (5 vs 6) and vibe-coder fit (8 vs 9). How scores work.
What changed recently
Gemini 4 Carbon in Devin Desktop and Devin CLI
On November 10, 2026, Gemini 4 Carbon became available in Devin Desktop and Devin CLI. On Cognition's FrontierCode 2.0 benchmark, which scores models on real-world engineering tasks by quality and mergeability, Gemini 4 Carbon scores 40.0%, compared with 26.3% for Gemini 4 Argon and 39.0% for GPT-6.1 Sol. At low reasoning effort, Gemini 4 Carbon already surpasses Gemini 4 Argon's best result, and its top score costs less than two-thirds as much per task as Argon's. Cost is the mean USD spend per rollout at list API pricing, including public discounts. Solutions that do not pass blocking criteria score 0.
Source for Gemini 4 Carbon in Devin Desktop and Devin CLI (opens in a new tab)Claude Code 2.1.322
Released November 10, 2026. Fast mode is available on Vertex in the global, us, and eu regions. If Vertex refuses fast mode, the request falls back to standard speed.
Source for Claude Code 2.1.322 (opens in a new tab)Devin Desktop 3.12.43
Released November 9, 2026. In Devin Local, a response that stops at the output limit before a tool call continues the turn, and GPT models no longer stop to ask for input they can work out. Image reads take an image_size. The default sends 70% of the original's longest side, at least 1024 px. Follow-up prompts in a Devin Local session are no longer blocked when Devin Cloud usage is restricted. Files in a gitignored directory are no longer listed as created. In the IDE, dragging a file or folder from the Explorer or an editor tab onto the Devin Local panel adds it as a chip. Child Devin Local sessions started in a Remote SSH window keep the parent summary. A Mermaid diagram inside a collapsed details section draws correctly when the section is opened, in Markdown previews and session messages. Saved codemaps no longer disappear on Windows. The Changes pane's Since last seen cutoff survives a tab switch and a restart. Mark unread is available in the sidebar row menu for the open session and for local sessions.
Source for Devin Desktop 3.12.43 (opens in a new tab)Claude Code 2.1.321
Released November 9, 2026. Claude Fable 5.2 (claude-fable-5-2) is the default Fable model, with a 1M-token context window, $8 per million input tokens, $40 per million output tokens, and cache reads at $0.20 per million tokens. claude remote-control --settings applies a settings file to every session it starts, and if that file changes, no new session starts until claude remote-control is restarted. VS Code warns above the prompt when both an auth token and an API key are set. Saved Fable 5.1 model picks move to fable, on Pro and Max at once and on Team and Enterprise once the organization allows it. /model claude-fable-5-1 switches back. Mods Claude writes turn on without asking in auto and bypass modes, even with managed allowUnsandboxedCommands set to false or allowManagedDomainsOnly, and they do not load in dontAsk mode. A mod's own $.tool.call and $.mcp.call raise no permission prompt, even under ask rules or in dontAsk and claude -p runs. Deny rules and organization policy still apply. Fast mode labels in /fast, /config, and /model name the current model when it supports fast mode, and the VS Code row no longer says Opus only. With policy_mode set to layered, managed MCP servers add up over every matching gateway policy, including an empty match. Bedrock, Vertex, and Foundry upstreams ignore ANTHROPIC_*_BASE_URL variables in the gateway's environment. Set base_url on the upstream to use another endpoint. The release fixes MCP OAuth requests that sent secrets such as refresh tokens to another host when a server redirected them, a read-only Bash command that ran outside the sandbox without a permission prompt, Bash permission checks that judged a file write from the wrong folder, and deny rules and protected-file prompts that did not apply to the file a cp or mv into a directory writes. It also includes a large fix sweep for MCP, permissions, the shell, cloud sessions, Remote Control, VS Code, and the terminal UI.
Source for Claude Code 2.1.321 (opens in a new tab)Devin Desktop 3.12.17
Released November 6, 2026. In the Agent Command Center, the session header menu lists that session's MCP servers and can turn one on or off or re-authenticate. If a local agent rejects the first prompt, Desktop puts the text back in the composer and shows the reason, so it can be corrected and resent without retyping. The editor uses VS Code 1.141.2 and Electron 43.8.3, which includes Chromium security fixes. In IDE mode, opening Devin settings opens an editor tab instead of switching modes. Chat diffs use the editor theme's diff colors, and shell commands and code blocks in the transcript use its syntax highlighting. A reopened Local session keeps its working directory and additional folders, and closing its tab no longer removes it from Past Conversations. The filename on a Local plan approval card opens the full plan before approval. Permission requests from third-party ACP agents no longer crash the conversation view or block reopening a session that has a pending request. Remote SSH connects to hosts defined only in a custom remote.devinSSH.configFile. On Windows, local edits save when the agent uses a different capitalization for the filename. Markdown previews work in the Agent Command Center.
Source for Devin Desktop 3.12.17 (opens in a new tab)Claude Code 2.1.319
Released November 6, 2026. When an MCP server runs a tool call as a task, Claude Code moves it to the background and tells Claude the result when it finishes. CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_MCP_TASK_BACKGROUND makes Claude wait inside the tool call instead, and CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_MCP_TASKS=1 turns MCP tasks off. permissions.denyInsteadOfPrompting denies a tool call that would wait on a permission prompt and lets the turn continue, in terminal sessions, subagents, and teammates. /claude-api latency-optimize looks for where Claude API code makes people wait and tries faster settings against an eval. CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_FEATURE_FLAGS stops feature-flag fetching without turning off telemetry, and every flag then uses its built-in default. With telemetry or feature flags off, including behind an LLM gateway, auto mode asks about or denies calls the server cannot check, with no fallback to the built-in classifier. CLAUDE_CODE_AUTO_MODE_SERVER=0 keeps the previous behavior on those setups. Bedrock, Vertex, and Foundry are unchanged. CLAUDE_CODE_AUTO_MODE_SERVER=1 turns the server-side check on behind an LLM gateway even when CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_EXPERIMENTAL_BETAS is set. Developers behind a Claude apps gateway with no spend limit see spend for today, this week, and this month in /usage when the gateway runs this version or later. The gateway adds admin.pooled_conflict_rule and admin.pooled_priority_order to choose which pooled group budget pays first, an optional login_notice on the browser verification page and on Claude Code's sign-in screen, and CLAUDE_GATEWAY_LOG_FORMAT=json for operational logs. /tasks adds an Earlier in this session row that lists finished subagents so one can be reopened after it leaves the list or Claude Code restarts. In cloud sessions, /loop says a timer stops with its container and offers a loop that survives. The release fixes a Bash permission bypass where a crafted environment prefix could hide part of a command from permission checks, and a sandbox escape when creating a worktree. It also includes a large fix sweep for MCP, permissions, the shell, cloud sessions, Remote Control, self-hosted runners, VS Code, and the terminal UI.
Source for Claude Code 2.1.319 (opens in a new tab)
Alternatives
Cursor (8.6), GitHub Copilot (7.8), Codex CLI (7.5).
FAQ
- Should I pick Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) or Claude Code?
- Pick Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) for this job: Running several coding agents from one IDE. Pick Claude Code for this job: Repo-sized edits from the terminal. Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) scores 7.3 and is #4 in AI code editors. Claude Code scores 8.3 and is #1 in Coding and CLI agents.
- What do Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) and Claude Code cost?
- Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf): Existing Windsurf plans were stated to carry over at the rename. Current prices: check site. Claude Code: Included with Claude plans and API usage. Current packaging and prices: check site.
- Are these scores benchmarks?
- Initial editorial estimate. Not a measured benchmark. Price means value for an indie budget, not the sticker price.
- Do affiliate links change Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) or Claude Code’s rank?
- Affiliate links may be used to monetize, but they never affect scores or rankings, and rankings are never sponsored.
Initial editorial estimate. Not a measured benchmark. Prices: check each vendor’s site. How scores work.
Some links may earn us a commission. It never changes scores or order.
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