The AI coding agent landscape in 2025

The number of AI coding assistants has exploded. Before you open your wallet, it helps to know who the main players are and what differentiates them.

The main contenders

Cursor is a fork of VS Code with deep AI integration. It pioneered the "AI-native IDE" model and is popular with developers who want tight editor integration without switching tools entirely.

Windsurf (by Codeium) takes a similar approach — a full IDE with agentic features built in. It competes directly with Cursor on features and pricing.

GitHub Copilot is the most widely deployed option, running as an extension in VS Code, JetBrains, Neovim, and more. Its advantage is ubiquity and tight GitHub integration.

Claude Code (Anthropic) is a terminal-first agentic CLI. It shines for complex refactors, multi-file operations, and tasks you describe in natural language at the command line.

Gemini CLI / Aider / Continue round out the open-source and free-tier options for developers who want more control.

What actually matters

The model underneath matters more than the UI wrapper. Ask yourself:

Which underlying model performs best on your type of tasks?
Do you need IDE integration, or are you comfortable with a terminal/CLI?
How much of your work is single-file edits vs. large multi-file refactors?

In the next lesson we'll look at how to read pricing pages without getting fooled.