Free Cursor AlternativesTop AI Coding Assistants & Code Editors like Cursor

The best free alternative to Cursor is Visual Studio Code. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Cursor and loads of them is free so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting free alternatives to Cursor are Sublime Text, VSCodium, Zed Editor and Kate.

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Cursor alternatives are mainly AI Coding Assistants, but if you're looking for Code Editors or IDEs you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Open Source, Free and EU. You can also filter by region, for example EU-based alternatives if you prefer software developed in the European Union. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to Cursor.
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Alternatives list

  1. Visual Studio Code icon
     1442 likes

    Free and extensible code editor with built-in Git support, smart IntelliSense, integrated debugger, 30,000+ extensions, works offline, supports markdown and syntax highlighting for numerous languages.

    233 Visual Studio Code alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary (MIT)

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Chrome OS
    • Snapcraft
     
  2. Sublime Text icon
     2073 likes

    Powerful editor blending code, markup, and prose editing with enhanced features like multi-tab selection, side-by-side definition viewing, and multiple selection tools for swift code navigation.

    219 Sublime Text alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
     
  3. VSCodium icon
     442 likes

    This repository contains a build file to generate FLOSS release binaries of Microsoft's Visual Studio Code - Open Source ("Code - OSS") project, the open source core of the proprietary Visual Studio Code.

    221 VSCodium alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • Electron
    • Snapcraft
    • Homebrew
    • Chocolatey
     
  4. Zed Editor icon
     144 likes

    Blazing fast code editor offering real-time multi-user collaboration, language-aware syntax highlighting, integrated terminal, multi-buffers for tab-free editing, built-in Vim mode, searchable outline, AI coding assistance, advanced keyboard commands, and cross-platform support.

    116 Zed Editor alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
     
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    3
    Zed Editor vs Cursor Comments
    Iaian7
    Positive
    0

    Zed is much closer to Cursor now than previous comments might have you believe; you're able to add API keys for a large range of providers, and the AI panel includes agent mode that will edit files as needed. The syntax for adding context (a folder, file, etcetera) is even the same as Cursor.

    gresch
    Negative
    1

    Zed is not an alternative to Cursor as the latter is an "AI"/ML coding support offering, not just a text editor.

    Aitztv
    Positive
    0

    today, 19-11-24, Zed for Windows is still not avaleible.

    • Zed Editor is Freemium and Open SourceCursor is Freemium and Proprietary
    • Zed Editor is a Code Editor Cursor is an AI Coding Assistant
    • Zed Editor is Lightweight and Privacy focusedCursor is not according to our users
  5. Kate icon
     334 likes

    The Kate project develops two main products: KatePart, the advanced editor component which is used in numerous KDE applications requiring a text editing component, and Kate, a MDI text editor application.

    165 Kate alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • KDE Plasma
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    • Snapcraft
     
  6. opencode icon
     53 likes

    Terminal-based AI coding assistant featuring a themed native UI, automatic LSP integration, multi-agent sessions, 75+ supported LLMs, local and cloud model options, shareable debugging links, open source licensing, and session sharing for collaborative coding workflows.

    101 opencode alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  7. Google Antigravity is an agentic IDE and coding environment designed to support real world software projects through autonomous development workflows. It provides an agent first workspace where developers set direction while AI agents carry out tasks such as coding, debugging...

    74 Google Antigravity alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  8. Void icon
     37 likes

    The open source AI code editor. Write code with the best AI tools, use any model, and retain full control over your data.

    99 Void alternatives

    Cost / License

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  9. Devin Desktop icon
     38 likes

    Windsurf Editor is an IDE merging AI and developers for lockstep collaboration with Cascade capabilities, boosting speed and contextual coding through copilot and agent-like systems across Mac, Windows, and Linux.

    111 Devin Desktop alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  10. GitHub Copilot icon
     37 likes

    GitHub Copilot leverages the power of OpenAI Codex to provide real-time suggestions for code and complete functions, all within your editor. With its training on vast amounts of code, GitHub Copilot translates natural language prompts into coding suggestions across multiple...

    144 GitHub Copilot alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Visual Studio Code
    • Neovim
    • Microsoft Visual Studio
     
  11. Emdash icon
     15 likes

    Emdash is a provider-agnostic desktop app that lets you run multiple coding agents in parallel, each isolated in its own git worktree, either locally or over SSH on a remote machine. We call it an Agentic Development Environment (ADE).

    69 Emdash alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Homebrew
     
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