Aider vs Windsurf

as AI assistants see them, week of 2026-09-14

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Aider and Windsurf come out nearly even overall, scoring 22 and 25 out of 100, and getting named in 27 and 28 of 70 answers. Aider stands out for local, privacy-focused and terminal-based use, named in 3 of 3 answers for both, plus every open-source question (3 of 3), and it scores highest with Claude at 45. Windsurf leans toward general "top assistant" and "best editor" questions, named in 4 of 4 answers each time, with Gemini rating it highest at 54. Head-to-head, Windsurf was named more often in 9 questions, Aider in 7, with 4 ties.

Head to head

metric	Aider	Windsurf
score	22	25
questions won	16	11

By assistant

Aider

assistant	score	named in, this week	usual spot, this week
ChatGPT	11	20% of answers	#6.5
Claude	45	80% of answers	#6.3
Gemini	12	20% of answers	#5.5
Perplexity	15	25% of answers	#5.4

Windsurf

assistant	score	named in, this week	usual spot, this week
ChatGPT	11	20% of answers	#7.0
Claude	26	45% of answers	#5.9
Gemini	54	80% of answers	#4.3
Perplexity	24	35% of answers	#4.0

Where they differ

Only Aider gets named for

What's the best open-source AI coding assistant?
What's the best AI coding assistant that works in the terminal?
What's the best AI coding assistant I can run locally for privacy?
Which AI coding assistant is best for professional developers?
Which AI coding tool is best for writing tests?
Which AI coding assistant is best for large codebases?
Which AI coding tool writes the most reliable code?

Only Windsurf gets named for

What's the best AI coding assistant for VS Code?
What's the best AI coding assistant for building mobile apps?

More comparisons

Not sold on either?

Scores count how often each assistant names a product, weighted by position. How the score works · Full AI coding assistants leaderboard