Overview & positioning
Cursor is an AI-first code editor built as a fork of VS Code, pairing a familiar editing surface with inline Tab completion and an agent that can plan and execute multi-file changes. It has become one of the most widely adopted AI coding tools on the market, positioned for everyone from solo hobbyists to enterprise engineering orgs, with access to frontier models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google baked in. Its six-tier lineup — from a free Hobby plan up to a $200/month Ultra tier — signals a deliberate strategy of meeting developers wherever they are on the spend curve, rather than gating the product behind an enterprise contract.
Cody's positioning has narrowed dramatically. Historically it was Sourcegraph's AI assistant for large, multi-repository codebases, and it still excels there — but in mid-2025 Sourcegraph terminated the Cody Free and Cody Pro plans and pivoted the product to enterprise-only, with reported pricing centered around $59 per user per month. Individual developers are now firmly out of scope, and Sourcegraph officially steers them to Amp, a separate agentic tool it offers free while testing an ad-supported model. Cody today is best understood as one capability inside Sourcegraph's broader code-intelligence platform, sold to organizations rather than developers.
Core capabilities
Cursor delivers the full editor experience: fast Tab autocomplete, an agent mode for multi-file and codebase-wide edits, cloud agents for background work, MCP support for extending context, and the ability to switch between frontier models per task. Because it is a complete editor rather than a plugin, the AI is woven through the entire workflow — from inline completions to whole-feature changes — and codebase-wide context retrieval helps it reason about larger projects. For most individual and team workflows, Cursor covers the day-to-day loop of writing, refactoring, and reviewing code without requiring any additional infrastructure.
Cody's core strength is code intelligence at scale. Backed by Sourcegraph's code-search engine, it is engineered to pull accurate context from very large, multi-repository codebases — the scenario where naive retrieval breaks down. It offers chat, autocomplete, and multi-file assistance, and in the enterprise bundle it sits alongside Sourcegraph's code search, batch changes, and administrative controls. For an organization with millions of lines spread across hundreds of repositories, that platform-grade context and governance is a real differentiator that a standalone editor is not designed to match. The capability is genuine; the constraint is who is allowed to buy it.
Developer experience & workflow
Cursor's experience is defined by familiarity and immediacy. Because it is a VS Code fork, most developers are productive within minutes, keeping their extensions, keybindings, and muscle memory while gaining an AI layer that feels native rather than bolted on. The low friction and free entry point make it trivial to trial, and the workflow scales smoothly from a single developer to a whole team without changing tools. This accessibility is central to why Cursor has spread so quickly: there is essentially no barrier between curiosity and daily use.
Cody's workflow is enterprise-shaped. It lives inside IDEs such as VS Code and JetBrains but is tied to a Sourcegraph deployment, which means setup, administration, and access control are organizational decisions rather than individual ones. That brings admin governance, seat management, and compliance features that large teams need — but it also means a curious individual developer can no longer simply install Cody and try it, since the free and Pro on-ramps were removed. The experience is strong for its intended buyer and effectively closed to everyone else, which is the defining tension of the product in 2026.
Pricing & licensing
Cursor offers six tiers: Hobby (free forever, with limited agent requests and Tab completions), Pro at $20/month, Pro+ at $60/month, Ultra at $200/month, Teams at $40/user/month, and Enterprise at custom pricing. Since mid-2025 it has used a credit-based model in which each paid plan includes a credit pool equal to its price, and annual billing saves roughly 20%. The free Hobby tier plus a $20 Pro plan gives individuals and small teams a genuine, low-cost entry point, while Pro+ and Ultra scale usage for heavy users — a ladder that lets spend grow with need rather than forcing a large upfront commitment.
Cody's pricing tells the pivot story directly. Sourcegraph stopped accepting new Free and Pro signups in June 2025 and terminated existing Free and Pro accounts by late July 2025, leaving an enterprise-only offering. Reported pricing centers on roughly $59 per user per month on an annual contract, though some sources cite figures nearer $49 depending on the package — these are reported reference points, not a published rate card, since Sourcegraph negotiates deals per customer. The broader Sourcegraph platform is described as starting near $16,000 with bundled AI-feature credits. Individuals wanting a free option are pointed to Amp instead of Cody.
Ideal use cases / who should pick which
Choose Cursor if you are an individual developer, a startup, or a team of nearly any size that wants to start coding with AI immediately. Its free tier lowers the barrier to trial, the $20 Pro plan covers most serious daily use, and the higher tiers absorb heavy usage without a procurement cycle. Cursor also suits teams that value model choice and a familiar VS Code-based editor, and its accessibility makes standardizing a whole team on one tool straightforward. For the overwhelming majority of buyers comparing these two, Cursor is the one they can actually adopt.
Choose Cody if you are a large enterprise already invested in Sourcegraph, working across a sprawling multi-repository codebase where platform-grade code intelligence, batch changes, and centralized admin controls matter more than per-seat cost. In that setting, the $59/user/month spend buys context accuracy and governance that a standalone editor cannot easily replicate, and the tight coupling with Sourcegraph's code search is a legitimate advantage. If your organization already runs Sourcegraph and needs enterprise controls, Cody is a coherent choice; otherwise it is effectively unavailable to you.
Verdict
Cursor stands as the primary recommendation of this comparison for almost everyone. It is accessible at every level of spend, ships a strong agent inside a familiar editor, and lets individuals and teams adopt it without contracts or platform prerequisites. The combination of a free tier, a mainstream $20 Pro plan, and a ceiling that scales to $200/month Ultra means Cursor fits the widest possible range of buyers — precisely the group most likely to be weighing these tools. Its momentum and breadth make it the safe default recommendation for individuals and teams alike.