AI coding assistants · RankedWindsurf
Windsurf is an AI coding assistant that helps developers write code · windsurf.com ↗
Read the same way at every company size.
The standing depends on who is buying. Every model is asked the same questions for each company size.
GitHub Copilot is first at 73%.
GitHub Copilot is first at 80%. 0 of 14 models made it the first choice when asked directly.
GitHub Copilot is first at 86%.
Why models recommend it
“Codeium — Best Overall for Small Teams ... If you want zero cost and basic autocomplete: Go with Codeium.”GLM 4.7 FlashX · Budget-constrained question · first choice
“Pick Cursor or Windsurf if: You want the most seamless experience for multi-file refactoring”Gemini 3.5 Flash · Comparative question · first choice
“Start with Codeium (Free). Ask your engineers to try the free version.”Qwen 3.7 Flash · Budget-constrained question · first choice
“Best For: Fast prototyping and users who prefer a guided, step-by-step agent experience inside the editor”Qwen 3.7 Flash · Comparative question · alternative
What gives them pause
“the individual version collects data by default, while enterprise versions offer zero-data-retention”DeepSeek V4 Flash · Negative question · warning
“cloud versions still risk data exfil. Some studies show similar vuln introduction rates.”Grok 4.20 · Negative question · warning
“Free tier available, but less capable on complex tasks per benchmark studies”GLM 4.7 FlashX · Paraphrase question · warning
Also on the shortlist
The products named in the same answers as Windsurf, over the 77 answers that named it, and how often each was the first choice instead.
| Product | Named together | Picked instead | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 77 | 45 | Compare → | |
| 64 | 12 | Compare → | |
| 40 | 2 | View → | |
| 37 | 3 | Compare → | |
| 36 | 0 | View → | |
| 14 | 2 | Compare → | |
| 12 | 0 | View → | |
| 12 | 0 | View → | |
| 11 | 0 | View → | |
| 11 | 0 | View → |
What the models named instead of Windsurf →
A side-by-side page exists where both products are among a category's top eight.
At a glance
Stated on Windsurf's own site, not checked by Gane.
- For
- developers
- Price stated
- Free $0; Pro $20 per month; Max $200 per month; Teams $80/mo + $40/mo per full seat; Enterprise Let's talk
- Starting price
- 0
- Free plan or trial
- Free $0
- Customers named
- Ramp, Harvey, NVIDIA, Modal, Intact Financial
How this is measured
Fourteen AI models from 12 labs are asked the same buying questions six ways, for three company sizes. Standings refresh every edition.
Gane sells AI visibility software. No company can pay to change a result.
Read the method →Sources returned with these answers
Fourteen of the fourteen models returned a source list in this edition: five return the pages they cited and nine the search results they consulted. These counts come from 66 of the 77 answers that named Windsurf and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
143 of the 163 domain citations in answers naming Windsurf came from a third party's page. Twenty were to the publisher's own pages (the Gane Index), which the models cite like any other source; they are not counted as a third party.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
By model
| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Warning | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Grok 4.20 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
What it publishes
| Kind | Pages | Last 90 days | 2025-11 to 2026-10 | Latest | Categories named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blog | 365 | 0 | 2026-07-01 | AI coding | |
| Case study | 49 | 16 | 2026-09-29 | ||
| Comparison | 11 | 0 | 2024-04-01 | ||
| Report or ebook | 4 | 0 | 2023-03-01 | ||
| Glossary or explainer | 2 | 0 | 2025-04-03 |
Most recent
How it is countedHide how it is counted
Every page windsurf.com exposes, subdomains included. Kind is read from the address and title. The last 90 days, the latest date and the twelve months count pages by when they were published, from the site's feeds, a date in the address, or the page's own publication date, read from up to a hundred of its most recently changed pages; a page that says only when it last changed is counted in its kind but not in when, so the recent counts are a floor, and a kind none of whose pages gives a publication date reads undated. Read October 5, 2026.