COMPARISON · Last verified: September 2026

Claude Code vs Windsurf (now Devin Desktop)

Anthropic's agentic coding tool vs Cognition's IDE with a built-in agent manager, compared on verified pricing, features and fit.

Claude Code vs Windsurf: official demos

Watch each tool in action. The Windsurf demo shows the editor under its original name.

Claude Code

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Windsurf (now Devin Desktop)

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Official videos via YouTube (Anthropic; Windsurf), embedded for reference. ToolChase does not host or claim these videos.

What is Claude Code?

Claude Code is Anthropic's agentic coding tool. You describe a task in plain language, and it reads your codebase, plans the approach, edits files across the project, runs commands and tests, and fixes what fails. The same engine runs in the CLI on macOS, Windows and Linux, in a VS Code extension that Anthropic says also installs in VS Code forks such as Devin Desktop, in a JetBrains plugin, in a desktop app and on the web. It connects to external tools through MCP, reads project instructions from CLAUDE.md or an existing AGENTS.md, and supports skills, hooks and subagents. It also runs in scripts, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD and scheduled cloud routines, and takes tasks from Slack. It uses Anthropic's Claude models: Opus 5 is the default on Max, Team Premium, Enterprise and the API, Sonnet 5 on Pro and Team Standard, and Fable 5.1 can be selected for the hardest tasks. Connected to Anthropic directly, Sonnet 5, Opus 5 and Fable 5.1 get a 1 million token context window on every plan, including Pro.

What is Windsurf (now Devin Desktop)?

Windsurf is the AI coding IDE that Cognition, the maker of Devin, renamed Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026. Cognition calls it the same IDE, editor and features under the Devin brand, and Anthropic's docs describe it as a VS Code fork. The default view is now the Agent Command Center, a Kanban board for local agents and for Devin Cloud agents that run on their own virtual machines (see our Devin review), with Spaces grouping each task's sessions, pull requests, files and context. The primary local agent is Devin Local, rewritten in Rust as the successor to Cascade: it shares its harness with the Devin CLI, uses up to 30% fewer tokens than Cascade on most tasks, and adds subagents and sandboxing. On Pro, Max and Teams, the Agent Client Protocol (ACP) runs third-party agents such as Codex, Claude Agent, OpenCode and Gemini CLI beside Cognition's own. Tab, powered by Cognition's in-house model, suggests edits before and after the cursor and is unlimited on every plan. The model picker pairs Cognition's SWE-2 with Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok and open models, and the app ships for macOS, Windows and Linux.

Key differences at a glance

Both run autonomous coding agents with MCP, skills and subagents, and both charge $20 a month at the entry paid tier. The main differences:

• -- Form factor: Claude Code is an agent you run in a terminal, an editor, its desktop app or a browser; Devin Desktop is a full IDE with an agent manager built in.
• -- Models: Claude Code uses Anthropic's models (Opus 5, Sonnet 5, Fable 5.1); Devin Desktop mixes Cognition's SWE-2 with Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok and open models.
• -- Autocomplete: Devin Desktop's Tab is unlimited on every plan; Claude Code works through prompts and explicit code changes.
• -- Multi-agent work: Devin Desktop puts local, Devin Cloud and third-party agents on one Kanban board; Claude Code spawns subagents and runs parallel sessions locally or in the cloud.
• -- Free tier: Devin Desktop has a free plan; Claude Code is not part of Claude's free plan.
• -- Team billing: Claude Team starts at $25 per seat a month ($20 billed annually) and includes SSO; Devin Teams costs $40 per full seat a month with an $80 minimum, and SSO requires Enterprise.
• -- Score: Claude Code rates 4.6/5 in our review; Windsurf rates 4.4/5.

Feature-by-feature comparison

Here is how Claude Code and Devin Desktop compare on the capabilities that affect daily use:

Pricing comparison

Claude Code is not included in Claude's free plan. It comes with Claude Pro at $20/month billed monthly or $17/month billed annually ($200 up front), and with Max from $100/month, billed monthly, for 5x or 20x Pro's usage. Team (2 to 150 people) costs $25 per standard seat a month billed monthly or $20 billed annually; premium seats with 5x a standard seat's usage cost $125 billed monthly or $100 billed annually. Enterprise is $20 per seat a month (billed annually) plus usage at API rates. Usage limits run on a rolling five-hour window, plus weekly limits on paid plans, shared with the rest of Claude. Or pay per token through the Anthropic API: Sonnet 5 costs $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, Opus 5 $5 and $25. Anthropic's docs put the enterprise average at about $13 per developer per active day.

Devin Desktop kept Windsurf's plans and monthly prices. Free includes a light agent quota, limited model availability, and unlimited Tab completions and inline edits. Pro at $20/month adds increased quotas, the full model list, Devin Cloud agents and extra usage at API pricing. Max at $200/month adds significantly higher quotas, measured weekly with no daily cap. Teams costs $40 a month per full seat, each with a Pro-level quota and Devin Desktop, against an $80 monthly minimum; flex seats are free, draw on shared credits and do not include Devin Desktop. Enterprise is custom and adds SAML/OIDC SSO. Since March 2026 the allowance is a daily and weekly token budget: Free users wait for the reset, and paid users can buy extra usage at API list prices. Pro and Max are single-user plans.

At $20 a month billed monthly, Claude Pro gives you Claude Code with Sonnet 5 as the default model; our review found Pro's caps suit light use, and heavy daily work usually needs Max or the API. Devin Pro gives a larger quota, every model, Devin Cloud and third-party ACP agents. For a team of five billed monthly, Claude Team standard seats cost 5 × $25 = $125 a month ($100 on annual billing), while Devin Teams with five full seats costs 5 × $40 = $200 a month, which clears the $80 minimum. A solo developer paying a year up front spends $17 a month on Claude Pro, against $20 for Devin Pro.

Bottom Line

Both cost $20 a month at the entry paid tier and Devin Desktop adds a free plan, so the choice comes down to how you work. Claude Code (4.6/5) is the stronger fit for handing off whole tasks such as refactors, migrations and test-and-fix loops. Windsurf, now Devin Desktop (4.4/5), suits developers who want an IDE first: unlimited Tab autocomplete, a wide model menu with Cognition's SWE-2, and one board for local, cloud and third-party agents. You can also combine them: the Claude Code extension installs in Devin Desktop, and Devin Desktop's Pro, Max and Teams plans can run Anthropic's agent over ACP, billed by Anthropic.

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