Cursor

My hands-on review of Cursor

Cursor feels less like a traditional code editor with an AI plugin and more like an AI development environment where the agent is part of the core workflow.

The basic experience starts with codebase understanding. Instead of manually finding every relevant file, you can give Cursor a task and let Agent search the repository, identify relevant code, make changes, and run commands.

This becomes especially useful for multi-file work. A request such as “add authentication to this application and update the routes, UI, API handling, and tests” can involve many files. Cursor Agent can inspect the project and coordinate those changes rather than generating disconnected snippets.

Cursor also provides planning for larger development tasks. Its documentation describes a Project workflow where a coordinator agent can plan larger bodies of work and delegate tasks to other agents.

The Cloud Agent workflow is one of the more interesting parts of the product. Instead of keeping the entire task on your local computer, the agent can run remotely in a dedicated virtual machine with the repository, dependencies, network access, and configured credentials. It can plan, edit code, run commands, test its work, and eventually create a pull request.

Cursor also supports MCP, plugins, skills, and hooks, which makes it possible to extend the development environment beyond the editor itself.

For an agency such as Axionova, the biggest advantage is speed. Cursor can reduce the amount of repetitive implementation work required for websites, web applications, SaaS products, dashboards, and custom integrations.

The important limitation is that faster coding does not automatically mean better software. Architecture, security, testing, deployment, and human review remain essential.

How Cursor actually works

Cursor combines an AI coding agent with a development environment that provides the agent with tools.

At the simplest level:

Developer Instruction → Codebase Search → AI Reasoning → File Changes → Terminal Commands → Testing → Review

Cursor Agent can search the codebase, inspect relevant files, modify multiple files, execute terminal commands, and work through errors.

For a larger task, the developer can first use planning:

Idea → Plan → Implementation → Testing → Review

The agent determines what needs to change before executing the implementation.

Cursor also supports Cloud Agents:

Task → Cloud Environment → Planning → Code Changes → Tests → Artifacts → Pull Request

Cloud Agents operate in dedicated virtual machines rather than directly modifying the developer's local environment. Cursor says these agents can build features, fix bugs, write tests, and automatically open pull requests.

Developers can also extend Cursor through MCP servers, plugins, skills, and hooks, allowing the AI development workflow to interact with additional tools and services.

Cursor supports a broad selection of frontier models. Its current model system separates Cursor's own model pool from third-party model usage, meaning model choice affects how quickly included usage is consumed.

This makes Cursor closer to an AI-powered software engineering environment than a conventional code-completion product.

Pricing: is it worth the money?

Cursor currently offers Hobby, Pro, Pro+, Ultra, Teams, and Enterprise options.

Hobby — Free The free plan requires no credit card and includes limited Agent requests and access to Composer.

Pro — $20/month Pro adds extended Agent limits, access to frontier models, generous Grok usage, MCPs, skills, hooks, Cloud Agents, and Bugbot on usage-based billing.

Pro+ — $60/month Pro+ provides approximately 3× the Pro Agent limits along with higher Grok usage and the other Pro capabilities.

Ultra — $200/month Ultra is aimed at heavy agent users and provides approximately 20× the Pro Agent limits, the highest Grok Bot usage limits, and priority access to new features.

Teams Standard — $40/user/month Teams adds centralized billing and administration, shared team context, cloud agents and automations, agentic code reviews through Bugbot, usage analytics, team-wide privacy mode, and SAML/OIDC SSO.

Teams Premium — $120/user/month Cursor's current documentation lists Teams Premium at $120/user/month for heavier agent users.

Enterprise — Custom Enterprise adds pooled usage, SCIM, repository/model/MCP access controls, audit logs, service accounts, network controls, AI code tracking API, and priority support.

Cursor uses usage-based pricing alongside subscriptions. Each plan includes model usage, and on-demand usage can continue after included usage is consumed and is billed afterward. Different models consume usage at different rates.

Important regional note: Cursor currently has a special Start plan for developers in India at ₹649/month, but this plan is specifically described as India-only. It should not be treated as a Pakistan pricing option.

For Axionova-style development work, Pro is the sensible starting point, while heavy daily agent usage may justify Pro+ or Ultra.

Cursor vs. the alternatives

• 1. GitHub Copilot

  A strong alternative for developers who want AI coding assistance deeply integrated with GitHub, IDEs, code review, and GitHub-native workflows.

• 2. Claude Code

  A terminal-focused coding agent designed for repository-level reasoning, file modifications, command execution, debugging, and larger development tasks.

• 3. OpenAI Codex

  An AI coding-agent solution designed to delegate software-development tasks, generate code, modify repositories, and handle longer engineering workflows.

• 4. Windsurf

  An AI-powered development environment combining code completion, conversational coding, codebase understanding, and agentic development.

• 5. Replit Agent

  A browser-based AI development environment that can turn natural-language ideas into applications and manage significant parts of the build process.

• 6. Gemini Code Assist

  Google's AI coding assistant for IDEs and developer workflows, with strong integration across Google's developer ecosystem.

• 7. Amazon Q Developer

  An AI coding assistant focused on software development, debugging, modernization, and AWS development workflows.

• 8. JetBrains AI Assistant

  An AI assistant integrated directly into JetBrains IDEs for coding, explanations, refactoring, documentation, and development tasks.

• 9. Tabnine

  An AI coding assistant focused on code completion, developer productivity, customization, privacy, and enterprise development.

• 10. Cline

  An AI coding agent that can work with codebases, edit files, execute commands, and use external tools within supported development environments.

My verdict

Cursor is one of the strongest choices for developers who want AI to participate directly in the software-development process rather than simply generate snippets.

Its biggest advantage is the combination of codebase understanding, Agent Mode, multi-file editing, terminal execution, planning, debugging, Cloud Agents, MCP, and multiple AI models.

The Cloud Agent workflow is particularly valuable for developers and agencies because longer tasks can be delegated to remote environments while the developer continues working on other tasks. Agents can build, test, generate artifacts, and open pull requests for review.

Cursor is especially useful for building websites, SaaS products, dashboards, APIs, internal tools, and MVPs. It can dramatically reduce implementation time when the developer understands how to direct and review the AI.

The biggest downside is cost and supervision. Heavy agent workflows can consume usage quickly, and different models have different costs.

There is also a learning curve. Getting consistently good results requires developers to understand project architecture, Git, testing, security, dependencies, and how to write effective task instructions.

For Axionova, Cursor is particularly valuable because it can support a complete AI-assisted website and web-app development workflow. It can accelerate client websites, SaaS MVPs, admin panels, dashboards, integrations, debugging, and ongoing maintenance.

Overall verdict: Highly recommended for developers, AI builders, startups, and development agencies that want an agent-first coding workflow.

Cursor FAQ