AICentralResources
AI Tool Comparison

Comparing as AI Pair Programming & Terminal Agents
Windsurf (Devin Desktop) vs Cline

Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

VS
Cline

Cline

Verdict by Category

Detailed category analysis is not available for this comparison.
View Windsurf (Devin Desktop) View Cline

Detailed Comparison

Feature
Windsurf (Devin Desktop)
Cline
Pricing
FreemiumDevin Desktop, formerly Windsurf, offers a Free plan at $0/month with unlimited access to Cognition's SWE-1.6 coding model and limited Cascade/Devin Local flow actions. The Pro plan costs $20/month and is the most popular tier, unlocking higher usage limits and access to premium models like Claude and GPT. A Max plan is available at $200/month for heavier usage. Teams pricing is $80/month as a base fee plus $40/month per full seat. Enterprise pricing is custom and includes SOC 2 Type II certification, SSO integration, audit logging, centralized admin controls, and a self-hosted inference option for HIPAA, FedRAMP, or CMMC compliance needs. Existing Windsurf subscribers kept their original plan pricing unchanged after the June 2026 rebrand to Devin Desktop.
FreeCline itself is free and open source — there are no seat fees or subscriptions for the core agent. You pay AI inference costs directly to your chosen LLM provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, etc.) with a full per-request cost breakdown shown in the UI. Cline shows every token used and every dollar spent transparently. ClinePass ($9.99/month) is an optional managed billing subscription that provides 2–5x more usage on popular open coding models compared to standard API rates, with one-click sign-in and no need to manage API keys yourself. It is not required — BYOK (bring your own key) is always available at zero markup. Enterprise pricing is custom and adds JetBrains extension, SSO/OIDC/SCIM, SLA, centralized billing, RBAC, team management dashboard, authentication logs, limit inference providers, dedicated support, VPC deployments, OpenTelemetry, and advanced config management. Contact sales at cline.bot/contact-sales.
Categories
AI Coding Assistants
AI Coding AssistantsAI Productivity ToolsAI Developer APIs & PlatformsAI No-Code / Automation Tools
Summary
The AI-native code editor from Codeium, now Devin Desktop by Cognition AI
Open-source AI coding agent — any model, your keys, full control
Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

Windsurf (Devin Desktop) Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Free tier gives genuinely useful daily coding assistance without a credit card
  • Agent Command Center lets developers manage local and cloud AI agents from one unified view
  • Agent Client Protocol support means it works alongside Claude Code, Codex, and other third-party agents
  • Devin Local is a faster, more token-efficient successor to Cascade, up to 30% more efficient
  • Backed by Cognition AI's broader Devin platform, giving a clear path from local edits to full cloud delegation

Cons

  • Cascade, the local agent that defined Windsurf's identity, is being fully retired and replaced by Devin Local as of July 1, 2026
  • The rebrand and ownership change (Codeium to Cognition AI) has caused confusion for long-time users about what changed
  • Model access is managed through Cognition's infrastructure rather than allowing bring-your-own-key configuration like some competitors
  • Cloud-based processing sends code context to Cognition's servers, which may not meet CMMC, HIPAA, or FedRAMP requirements without the enterprise self-hosted option
  • Heavier agentic use requires the Pro plan or above; the free tier is best suited for individual, lighter usage
Cline

Cline Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Completely free and open source (Apache 2.0) — no seat fees, no subscriptions, no proprietary lock-in ever
  • 67K+ GitHub stars and 8M+ developers — largest open-source coding agent community by any measure
  • Full cost transparency at zero markup — the only major coding agent that shows exactly what you pay per request with no hidden pricing
  • Model-agnostic with 12+ provider integrations — switch any time without changing workflow or losing your setup
  • Plan/Act mode gives full human-in-the-loop control — approve every action or flip to autopilot when confidence is high
  • Trusted by engineers at Salesforce, Oracle, Amazon, Microsoft, eBay, Visa, IBM, and LG

Cons

  • BYOK means you manage your own LLM API keys and billing — can be confusing for non-technical users used to flat subscriptions
  • No built-in inline autocomplete (Tab completions) — Cline is an agent, not a code-completion tool like Copilot or Tabnine
  • JetBrains support is still Early Access — not as polished as the VS Code extension
  • Some engineers joining OpenAI's Codex team in January 2026 raised community concerns about long-term momentum (Cline confirmed no acquisition and remains independent)
  • Enterprise features (SSO, RBAC, JetBrains, SLA) require a custom sales contract — no self-serve team plan available