Continue vs Windsurf

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

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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	16	25
questions won	11	11

By assistant

Continue

assistant	score	named in, this week	usual spot, this week
ChatGPT	13	20% of answers	#4.8
Claude	16	35% of answers	#9.3
Gemini	35	80% of answers	#9.6
Perplexity	14	20% of answers	#3.8

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 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?
Which AI coding assistant is best for professional developers?
Which AI coding tool writes the most reliable code?

Only Windsurf gets named for

What are the best AI coding agents that can work across a whole codebase?
What's the best AI tool for writing and fixing React and Next.js code?
What's the best AI coding assistant for a solo developer building a SaaS?
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