Which AI‑Powered IDE Is Winning Developers’ Hearts in 2024?

Data Source

Early‑adopter feedback often highlights innovative features, but many early tools never become mainstream because larger vendors adapt to customer demand. The mainstream IDEs are Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, and JetBrains IDEs, while newer AI‑focused startups compete for attention.

Developers' Favorite IDEs

The most frequently mentioned editors are:

Cursor – an AI‑first code editor gaining rapid adoption.

Visual Studio Code with GitHub Copilot – widely used with extensions like Supermaven and Cline.

JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ, PyCharm, PHPStorm, RubyMine) with GitHub Copilot.

Windsurf editor – a recent "agent IDE" from Codeium.

Zed – a next‑generation AI‑collaborative editor.

Neovim with Copilot.

Supermaven – an AI completion app that runs inside VS Code or JetBrains IDEs.

Aider – a terminal‑based pair‑programming assistant.

Cline – an autonomous coding agent integrated as an extension.

Other notable mentions include Sourcegraph Cody, Vercel v0, Replit AI Agent, Stackblitz Bolt.new, Neovim Avante, Eclipse Theia (now AI‑enabled), Augment Code, Continue.dev, Pear, and more.

Cursor

Founded in 2022, Cursor released its first IDE version in March 2023. Its popularity surged around July 2024 after adding default support for the Sonnet 3.5 model. Developers praise its rule‑based context saving, faster performance, and the Composer feature that works across multiple files.

“After trying competitors, Cursor remains my favorite. Highlights: 1) rule‑based context saving, 2) faster speed than rivals, 3) Composer – it delivers better results.”

Composer enables AI‑driven multi‑file operations, such as extracting key views from iOS screens. Additional valued features include superior code generation (using Sonnet 3.5 or Anthropic models), speed, a dedicated chat window, easy online editing, familiar VS Code‑like UI, and model switching.

Some users report excessive suggestion frequency, which can feel intrusive.

Windsurf

Developed by Codeium, Windsurf is a recent AI editor comparable to Cursor but focuses on enhanced AI‑collaboration workflows and a UI that tracks AI actions. It offers the Cascade feature—a chat‑based agent that collaborates across files, supports both "code" and "chat" modes, and can execute terminal commands.

“In the past 8 weeks I used Windsurf >30 hours and Cursor >150 hours. Windsurf’s Cascade outperforms Cursor’s Compose with better indexing and terminal command support. Cursor’s Claude fatigues after 30‑60 minutes, while Windsurf remains stable.”

The Windsurf team consists of over 50 engineers. They built Cascade using a mix of large models (Anthropic, OpenAI) for long‑context reasoning and fast‑response models for retrieval and code changes. Windsurf itself was used to develop many of its core features.

Large‑scale adoption examples include Super.com’s monorepo with millions of lines of code across ten+ domains.

Zed

Released publicly in March 2023, Zed is built by a 14‑person core team using Rust and offers free unlimited AI completions via a partnership with Anthropic. Developers appreciate its Vim‑style editing, fast LLM response (thanks to caching), customizable keyboard mappings, multi‑model integration, and shareable configuration files.

Visual Studio Code and JetBrains IDEs

Engineers who stick with VS Code or JetBrains IDEs primarily rely on code completion. Cursor and Windsurf stand out for multi‑file editing and agent capabilities, which many developers find superior to the more limited experiences of GitHub Copilot and other extensions.

JetBrains AI, often used alongside Copilot, is perceived as less efficient at code extraction compared to competitors.

Is This an IDE Revolution?

Over the past 18 months, numerous AI‑driven IDEs have emerged and continue to evolve. Significant funding has been raised for startups like Magic.dev and Cognition AI, though they have yet to launch public products. Microsoft’s strong brand and distribution keep VS Code and Copilot dominant, but AI‑centric IDEs such as Cursor, Windsurf, and Zed are rapidly gaining market share and could become the next generation of developer tools.

Based on the survey and analysis, AI‑enhanced IDEs are in a "burgeoning innovation" phase, with a multi‑billion‑dollar market and developers willing to pay for productivity‑boosting tools.