Windsurf Alternatives That Don't Run Out of Credits

The credit system is broken and other real problems

Windsurf's credit system is the most annoying thing about it. You're debugging something complex, the AI is actually helping, and then boom - you hit your monthly limit. Development doesn't stop because an arbitrary counter hit zero.

The credits are just the start of the problems. After using Windsurf for six months on actual projects, here are the real issues that made me start testing alternatives:

The Credit System Will Screw You

The $15/month Pro plan sounds reasonable until you realize how fast you burn through credits. I hit my limit by the 20th of the month, every month. Then you're stuck either paying per-request (expensive) or waiting until next month (useless).

Multiple users on Reddit report burning credits 10x faster than expected, with some complaining about Windsurf quietly changing pricing without proper notice.

GitHub Copilot charges $10/month with no limits. Cursor is $20/month but also unlimited. Even if Windsurf worked perfectly, the pricing model comparison sucks for anyone who codes regularly.

It Breaks on Large Codebases

Windsurf's Cascade feature works fine for toy projects but shits the bed on real codebases. Tested it on a React 18.x monorepo with like 50+ components and ~200k lines of TypeScript - Cascade would timeout after 30 seconds with Error: Context window exceeded. Even when it worked, suggestions were garbage like "add PropTypes" to TypeScript files. Like, what the fuck? It's TypeScript for a reason.

React 18 useEffect infinite loops are common debugging scenarios where you need AI that understands dependency arrays properly. The official React docs even mention these patterns, but Windsurf's suggestions often make things worse.

I filed a GitHub issue about this a few months back and they blamed it on "workspace complexity" instead of fixing their context handling.

Cursor indexes everything upfront (takes 3-5 minutes for large repos) but then actually understands your codebase. Cursor has memory leaks on M1 Macs though - restart it every few hours or watch your laptop become a space heater.

Limited Model Options

Windsurf mostly uses Claude 3.5 Sonnet, which is good, but sometimes you want options. Maybe GPT-4 is better for your specific use case, or you want to try a faster model for simple autocomplete.

Most alternatives let you switch between multiple AI providers. Continue.dev even works with local models if you're paranoid about sending code to the cloud. You can run CodeLlama or Deepseek Coder locally through Ollama.

Migration Is Actually Easy

Switching isn't as painful as you'd think. Most of these tools import VS Code settings and extensions automatically. If you're already using VS Code with Windsurf, moving to Cursor or Continue.dev takes maybe 30 minutes to set up.

Migration guides show that switching is easy. Whether it's worth it depends on whether the new tool actually works better for your specific workflow.

If You Just Want Something That Works

GitHub Copilot is boring and reliable. At $10/month, it's cheaper than almost everything else and works with whatever editor you're already using. The AI isn't as fancy as Cursor or Windsurf, but it doesn't randomly stop working either.

I've been using Copilot for two years and the most frustrating thing that's happened is maybe a 30-second outage. Detailed comparisons show its reliability advantage. Compare that to Windsurf's credit system randomly cutting you off mid-task.

If You Want the Best AI (and Can Pay for It)

Cursor is probably the best AI coding assistant right now. At $20/month, it's expensive but the AI is noticeably smarter than GitHub Copilot, especially for complex refactoring.

The big advantage is that Cursor actually understands your entire codebase. I tested it on a React project with 50+ components and it could suggest changes that made sense across multiple files. Windsurf's Cascade feature tries to do this but fails on anything bigger than a toy project.

Cursor also handles large codebases without choking. I imported a 10GB monorepo and after the initial indexing (took like 5 minutes), suggestions were relevant and fast.

If You're Broke or Paranoid

Continue.dev is free and works as a VS Code extension. You provide your own OpenAI API key or Anthropic Claude API, so you're only paying for actual usage. For light usage, this costs maybe $5-10/month instead of fixed subscription fees.

The setup is more involved than just installing an app, but if you're technical enough to configure your own API keys, it's a good deal. Plus you can use local models with Ollama if you don't want to send code to the cloud.

Codeium has a genuinely free tier that's pretty decent for basic autocomplete. The AI isn't as good as paid options, but it's better than coding without any assistance.

If You Love Terminal Workflows

Aider is free and terminal-based. If you're the kind of person who lives in tmux and never touches a mouse, this might be perfect. It integrates well with git and can make changes across multiple files from the command line.

I tried it for a week and it's surprisingly good at understanding what you want to change, but the terminal-only interface isn't for everyone.

The Truth About "Enterprise" Features

Most of the security and compliance stuff that tools advertise is marketing bullshit unless you're at a huge company with actual compliance requirements. SOC2 compliance? GDPR? Sounds impressive but doesn't help you debug code at 2am.

If you work somewhere that needs on-premises deployment or air-gapped environments, you probably already know it. For everyone else, just pick the tool that works best for your daily coding.

Why I Finally Gave Up on Windsurf

After six months of using Windsurf, the credit system broke my workflow one too many times. Tuesday night, around midnight, debugging a React 18.2.0 context hell that was causing infinite re-renders in production. Five thousand users hitting HTTP 503 errors because of a useEffect dependency array issue. Windsurf's AI was actually being useful for once, suggesting the exact useCallback fix I needed. Then BAM - "Credit limit exceeded. Upgrade to continue."

Fucking unbelievable. Third time this month. Had to stop coding and wait like 3 days for the billing cycle reset because I'd already blown my freelancer budget on AWS costs. Lost 2 hours of momentum and had to explain to the client why their urgent production fix got delayed because my AI tool ran out of magic points. The site stayed broken until Thursday morning. Absolute bullshit.

That's when I started testing alternatives seriously. Here's what actually happened when I tried to switch:

Trying Cursor for Two Weeks

The migration from Windsurf to Cursor took about 30 minutes. Cursor imported most of my VS Code settings automatically, which was nice because I hate reconfiguring everything.

First impression: Cursor's AI is noticeably better at understanding large codebases. I have a 50-component React app and Cursor actually understood the relationships between components when suggesting changes. Windsurf would often suggest changes that broke things three files away.

The downside: Cursor uses more RAM than Chrome with 47 tabs open. My 16GB MacBook Pro hits like 14GB usage with Cursor + Docker + 3 browser tabs. Activity Monitor shows Cursor Helper (Renderer) eating 3-4GB constantly. Don't even think about running it on 8GB machines - you'll get Low Memory warnings every 20 minutes and your laptop will sound like a jet engine.

Recent versions have had memory leak issues - I've had to restart Cursor every few hours or it balloons to 6GB+ RAM usage. Seems to get worse when working with TypeScript files.

After two weeks, I stuck with Cursor. $20/month is expensive but the unlimited usage and better AI made it worth it for my consulting work.

When I Tried Continue.dev

Setting up Continue.dev was more annoying than expected. You need to get your own OpenAI API key, configure it properly, and the documentation assumes you know more about AI APIs than I did.

Pro tip from the Continue Discord: don't use the default GPT-4 model - it's expensive per token. Switch to `gpt-4o-mini` in the config.json or you'll burn through your API budget fast. I burned $23 in two days because I forgot to change from gpt-4 to gpt-4o-mini.

Once it was working, it was pretty decent. The AI quality depends on which model you configure it to use. With GPT-4, it was almost as good as Cursor. With cheaper models, it felt noticeably dumber.

Cost-wise, it ended up being around $8-12/month in API usage for my normal coding volume. Cheaper than Cursor but with more setup complexity and occasional API rate limit issues.

GitHub Copilot: Boring But Reliable

GitHub Copilot isn't as smart as Cursor for complex tasks, but it's reliable and cheap. I've had it for two years and the worst thing that's happened is maybe a 30-second outage.

For simple autocomplete and basic code generation, it's perfectly fine. For complex refactoring across multiple files, it's not as helpful as Cursor. But it's $10/month with no surprises, which appeals to my freelancer budget anxiety.

The Free Options Are Actually Decent

Codeium has a genuinely free tier that works reasonably well for basic autocomplete. It's not as smart as the paid tools, but it's better than coding without any AI assistance.

I tried it for a week on a side project and it was surprisingly useful for boilerplate code and simple functions. For someone just starting with AI coding tools, it's a good way to see if you find the assistance helpful before paying for something better.

What I Actually Use Now

I ended up using GitHub Copilot for daily coding and Cursor for complex refactoring projects. It's not the cheapest approach ($30/month total) but it gives me reliable basic assistance plus access to the best AI when I need it.

The hybrid approach works because different tools are good at different things. Copilot is great for autocomplete and small functions. Cursor is better for understanding complex codebases and suggesting architectural changes.

Windsurf tried to be good at everything but the credit system made it unreliable when I needed it most. I'd rather pay predictable money for tools that work consistently than deal with that credit limit bullshit ever again.