Continue vs Windsurf
as AI assistants see them, week of 2026-10-12
Windsurf edges out Continue overall, scoring 25 versus 16, and shows up in 28 of 70 answers compared to Continue's 23 of 70. Windsurf leads on the top AI coding assistants and best AI code editor questions, named in 4 of 4 answers each, while Continue dominates the free and open-source angles, also 4 of 4 and 3 of 3. Head-to-head, Windsurf comes out ahead in 8 questions, Continue in 6, with 6 ties. Gemini rates both highest of the four assistants, giving Windsurf 54 and Continue 35, while ChatGPT is toughest on both, at 11 and 13.
Head to head
| metric | Continue | Windsurf |
|---|---|---|
| score | 15 | 21 |
| questions won | 12 | 15 |
By assistant
Continue
| assistant | score | named in, this week | usual spot, this week |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 10 | 10% of answers | #3.5 |
| Claude | 15 | 25% of answers | #6.0 |
| Gemini | 31 | 45% of answers | #5.6 |
| Perplexity | 14 | 16% of answers | #2.7 |
Windsurf
| assistant | score | named in, this week | usual spot, this week |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 12 | 20% of answers | #5.0 |
| Claude | 25 | 40% of answers | #6.1 |
| Gemini | 41 | 45% of answers | #5.4 |
| Perplexity | 16 | 11% of answers | #4.0 |
Where they differ
Only Continue gets named for
- What's the best AI coding assistant I can run locally for privacy?
- What's the best open-source AI coding assistant?
- What are the best alternatives to Windsurf?
Only Windsurf gets named for
- What's the best AI code editor right now?
- What are the best AI coding agents that can work across a whole codebase?
- Which AI coding assistant gives the best value for the money?
- What's the best AI tool for writing and fixing React and Next.js code?
- Which AI coding assistant is best for professional developers?
- Which AI coding tool writes the most reliable code?
More comparisons
- Continue vs JetBrains AI Assistant
- Cline vs Continue
- Continue vs Tabnine
- Amazon Q Developer vs Continue
- Cline vs Windsurf
- OpenAI Codex vs Windsurf
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