Cline vs Windsurf

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

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Windsurf edges ahead overall, scoring 25 out of 100 versus Cline's 18, and shows up in 28 of 70 answers compared with Cline's 23. Windsurf's standout is Gemini, at 54, while Cline's best showing comes from Claude, at 31. Cline gets named in all 3 answers about VS Code and open-source options, and 3 of 4 for free assistants. Windsurf sweeps 4 of 4 answers for top 2026 assistants, best overall assistants, and best code editor. Head-to-head, Windsurf leads in 9 questions, Cline in 6, with 5 tied.

Head to head

metric	Cline	Windsurf
score	18	25
questions won	13	11

By assistant

Cline

assistant	score	named in, this week	usual spot, this week
ChatGPT	16	30% of answers	#6.7
Claude	31	60% of answers	#7.3
Gemini	4	10% of answers	#11.0
Perplexity	13	20% of answers	#4.3

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 Cline gets named for

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

Only Windsurf gets named for

What's the best AI tool for writing and fixing React and Next.js code?
What's the best AI coding assistant for building mobile apps?
What's the best AI coding assistant for Python?

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