University of Kwazulu-Natal

Two Different Takes On Cursor Copilot Vibe Coding Supremacy

Bonisiwe Shabane
-
two different takes on cursor copilot vibe coding supremacy

Since the AI coding assistant space kicked off with GitHub Copilot, which came early to Visual Studio Code, other alternatives have sprung up, with Cursor among the most popular. Thanks to abilities such as deep codebase understanding and natural language refactoring, Cursor has risen in popularity among alternatives like Windsurf (formerly Codeium), Amazon Q, Replit's Ghostwriter,Tabnine and many more. That's a lot to choose from, and two recent posts show how opinionated developers can come down on both sides of the Copilot-vs.-Cursor debate, offering up plenty of evidence to back up their decisions. Cursor is developed by Anysphere, which dubbed it "the AI code editor." Characteristics of the editor -- which is actually based on a fork of VS Code as are some other alternatives -- include: Turning to those opinionated developers, two of them in the past week posted Cursor/Copilot comparisons and explained why one chose Cursor and one chose Copilot. On May 2, Marc Matterson published "Why I stopped Using Cursor and Reverted to VS Code," and three days later Fredrick Eghosa published "I tried Cursor vs VS Code for vibe coding; here's my...

TL;DR: Copilot is stable and reliable for most devs, Cursor is experimental but fun for flow-based coding, and extensions keep your workflow grounded. Use AI to assist, not autopilot. If you’ve been on dev Twitter or YouTube lately, you’ve probably seen everyone “coding with AI” like it’s the new enlightenment. The truth?AI tools are getting seriously good, but they’re not replacements for solid programming sense.Let’s look at three names you’ve definitely heard: GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and the growing world of AI extensions people use... Copilot is like that senior dev who helps you type faster but doesn’t always think smarter for you.It’s deeply integrated with VS Code and JetBrains, can read your current file context, and predicts your... Verdict:✅ Great for production work and speeding up routine tasks.⚠️ Needs human review every time.

Cursor is the new kid on the block. It’s a full editor (like VS Code) but built from the ground up around AI. You literally chat with your codebase: Learning to program used to be a whole ordeal. I'd spend hours Googling things like "how to center a div" and then copy code from Stack Overflow, hoping it would work. (It almost never did.)

AI tools have changed all that. Now, I can tell my AI assistant what I'm picturing, and it will build it while I make a cup of tea. This sudden shift from traditional coding to AI-assisted development is empowering, but it's also overwhelming. There are so many models, extensions, and tools out there. Two of the most promising AI coding tools right now are GitHub Copilot and Cursor. While both assist with development, they operate based on different philosophies: GitHub Copilot enhances whatever coding setup you already love, while Cursor wants to become your entire development environment.

So, which one should you choose for your coding projects? Let's take a look. .css-19a5n3-Link{all:unset;box-sizing:border-box;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;cursor:pointer;-webkit-transition:all 300ms ease-in-out;transition:all 300ms ease-in-out;outline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-fill-color:currentColor;outline:1px solid transparent;}.css-19a5n3-Link[data-color='ocean']{color:var(--zds-text-link, #3d4592);}.css-19a5n3-Link[data-color='ocean']:hover{outline-color:var(--zds-text-link-hover, #2b2358);}.css-19a5n3-Link[data-color='ocean']:focus{color:var(--zds-text-link-hover, #3d4592);outline-color:var(--zds-text-link-hover, #3d4592);}.css-19a5n3-Link[data-color='white']{color:var(--zds-brand-almost-white, #fffdf9);}.css-19a5n3-Link[data-color='white']:hover{color:var(--zds-gray-warm-5, #a8a5a0);}.css-19a5n3-Link[data-color='white']:focus{color:var(--zds-brand-almost-white, #fffdf9);outline-color:var(--zds-brand-almost-white, #fffdf9);}.css-19a5n3-Link[data-color='primary']{color:var(--zds-text-link, #3d4592);}.css-19a5n3-Link[data-color='primary']:hover{color:var(--zds-text-link-hover, #2b2358);}.css-19a5n3-Link[data-color='primary']:focus{color:var(--zds-text-link-hover, #3d4592);outline-color:var(--zds-text-link-hover, #3d4592);}.css-19a5n3-Link[data-color='secondary']{color:var(--zds-brand-almost-white, #fffdf9);}.css-19a5n3-Link[data-color='secondary']:hover{color:var(--zds-gray-warm-5, #a8a5a0);}.css-19a5n3-Link[data-color='secondary']:focus{color:var(--zds-brand-almost-white, #fffdf9);outline-color:var(--zds-brand-almost-white, #fffdf9);}.css-19a5n3-Link[data-weight='inherit']{font-weight:inherit;}.css-19a5n3-Link[data-weight='normal']{font-weight:400;}.css-19a5n3-Link[data-weight='bold']{font-weight:700;}GitHub Copilot vs. Cursor at a glance Get our fun 5-minute roundup of happenings in African and global tech, directly in your inbox every weekday, hours before everyone else. Powered by AI and perfected by seasoned editors.

Every story blends AI speed with human judgment. Cursor vs GitHub Copilot (2025) Which AI code assistant feels better to use Every day, we handpick the biggest stories, skip the noise, and bring you a fun digest you can trust. I’ve been spending the past few months getting deep into vibe coding. Not because I’m a developer (spoiler: I’m not), but because I’m wildly curious about the tools developers are using to stay in the flow, and I’ve become a bit obsessed with finding the ones... Also, because my editor told me to test.

DigitalOcean vs. AWS Lightsail: Which Cloud Platform is Right for You? Before AI coding assistants, a developer’s best coding and debugging tools were browser tabs filled with coding tutorials and Stack Overflow posts. Today, the same developer now has easy access to an AI collaborator within their code editor, ready to answer questions, write functions, and even refactor entire projects in real time. A 2025 Pragmatic Engineer survey reported that ~85% of respondents use at least one AI tool in their workflow. Vibe coding tools like GitHub Copilot and Cursor redefine what it means to “pair program.” As the competition between these tools heats up in 2025, the question isn’t just which one offers the best...

AI editors are evolving from assistants to collaborators, enabling developers to move beyond simple suggestions to intelligent, context-aware coding that works with an entire project codebase as its context. GitHub Copilot is fast and integrates well with the ecosystem, making it suitable for quick tasks and GitHub-centric workflows. Cursor offers more comprehensive control through project-wide context, multi-file editing, and model flexibility. Vibe coding tools, also known as AI-assisted development platforms, are software applications designed to facilitate code generation and manipulation through the utilization of artificial intelligence, particularly large language models (LLMs). This article provides a comparative analysis of prominent tools in this category, namely Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and Replit, evaluating their respective functionalities and impact on developer workflows. The discussion encompasses their approaches to natural language to code translation and their relative strengths and weaknesses.

For an in-depth coverage of AI-assisted coding space see this industry report: Vibe Coding and the AI-Driven Transformation of Software Development. Cursor emerges as a distinct entity in the AI-assisted development space. Unlike mere code completion tools, Cursor positions itself as a full-fledged, AI-first code editor. Its defining characteristic is its deep, bidirectional integration of large language models (LLMs) into the core editing experience. GitHub Copilot, powered by OpenAI, takes a different approach. It functions as an AI pair programmer, seamlessly integrating into existing IDEs to provide real-time code suggestions and autocompletion.

Replit stands out for its emphasis on accessibility and collaboration. It’s a browser-based IDE that democratizes software development, making it accessible to beginners and experienced developers alike. Amazon CodeWhisperer is designed to provide real-time AI code suggestions and security scans directly within the AWS development environment. It aims to streamline the development process for those working within the Amazon Web Services ecosystem. In our previous article, we explored the models themselves. We looked at GPT-5 with Codex, Claude Sonnet 4.5, and Gemini 2.5, comparing their raw reasoning capabilities.

At the time, we promised that a breakdown of the interfaces that bring these models into your daily workflow was a topic for another time. This article picks up where we left off, examining how the two major players — Cursor and GitHub Copilot — are competing for leadership in the field of agentic AI. If you felt that the previous generation of AI tools was too slow to keep up with your thought process, Cursor 2.0 is the answer. Released in late October 2025, the team behind Cursor has doubled down on a single thesis: speed is a functional requirement for autonomy. By the way, the Cursor team is not alone in putting money on speed. We recently analyzed broader patterns in how businesses succeed with AI, and noticed that speed has become one of the strongest competitive advantages.

The standout feature here is Composer, a proprietary model configuration designed specifically for multi-file editing. Unlike generic models that can be sluggish, Composer is optimized for low latency, reportedly 4x faster than comparable frontier models. The debate over AI coding assistants intensifies, with the cursor vs copilot showdown at its core. Choosing the right tool is crucial for engineering teams and frontend developers. GitHub Copilot is a ubiquitous AI pair programmer, while Cursor is a rapidly emerging AI-native code editor. This article will dissect both to help you decide.

Selecting an AI assistant means aligning its capabilities with your team’s needs. This comparison will explore features, pricing, and 2025 roadmaps, providing a clear verdict for developers, tech leads, and enterprise teams. Cursor is best for developers working on large codebases, needing deep context awareness, advanced refactoring tools, and the flexibility to switch between multiple AI models. GitHub Copilot is ideal for those who want fast code completions, broad IDE support, and tight GitHub/Microsoft ecosystem integration. Your choice depends on your coding style, project size, and budget. Both Cursor and Copilot aim to augment the development process, but they approach this goal from fundamentally different angles.

Copilot acts as an assistant within your existing editor, while Cursor provides an entirely new, AI-first environment. AI code completion & generation assistant

People Also Search

Since The AI Coding Assistant Space Kicked Off With GitHub

Since the AI coding assistant space kicked off with GitHub Copilot, which came early to Visual Studio Code, other alternatives have sprung up, with Cursor among the most popular. Thanks to abilities such as deep codebase understanding and natural language refactoring, Cursor has risen in popularity among alternatives like Windsurf (formerly Codeium), Amazon Q, Replit's Ghostwriter,Tabnine and many...

TL;DR: Copilot Is Stable And Reliable For Most Devs, Cursor

TL;DR: Copilot is stable and reliable for most devs, Cursor is experimental but fun for flow-based coding, and extensions keep your workflow grounded. Use AI to assist, not autopilot. If you’ve been on dev Twitter or YouTube lately, you’ve probably seen everyone “coding with AI” like it’s the new enlightenment. The truth?AI tools are getting seriously good, but they’re not replacements for solid p...

Cursor Is The New Kid On The Block. It’s A

Cursor is the new kid on the block. It’s a full editor (like VS Code) but built from the ground up around AI. You literally chat with your codebase: Learning to program used to be a whole ordeal. I'd spend hours Googling things like "how to center a div" and then copy code from Stack Overflow, hoping it would work. (It almost never did.)

AI Tools Have Changed All That. Now, I Can Tell

AI tools have changed all that. Now, I can tell my AI assistant what I'm picturing, and it will build it while I make a cup of tea. This sudden shift from traditional coding to AI-assisted development is empowering, but it's also overwhelming. There are so many models, extensions, and tools out there. Two of the most promising AI coding tools right now are GitHub Copilot and Cursor. While both ass...

So, Which One Should You Choose For Your Coding Projects?

So, which one should you choose for your coding projects? Let's take a look. .css-19a5n3-Link{all:unset;box-sizing:border-box;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;cursor:pointer;-webkit-transition:all 300ms ease-in-out;transition:all 300ms ease-in-out;outline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-fill-color:currentColor;outline:1px solid transparent;}.css-19a5n3-Link[data-color='ocean']{c...