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Codespaces vs Windsurf comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Codespaces
Ranking in IDE
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
4.8
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Development Platforms (4th)
Windsurf
Ranking in IDE
4th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
AI Code Assistants (4th), AI Software Development (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the IDE category, the mindshare of Codespaces is 11.4%, down from 28.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Windsurf is 8.6%, down from 9.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IDE Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Codespaces11.4%
Windsurf8.6%
Other80.0%
IDE
 

Featured Reviews

Zishan Sayyed Yunus - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant manager at Interactive avenues
Smooth workflow with deployment and validation efficiency
I think there should be a scheduler option if you want to run it, similar to Google Cloud, where you can specify how long you want to keep your scheduling active. If you want to use it as a server or for a temporary time duration, you should be able to schedule it so the server will be activated between specific durations and auto-deactivate to save costs. Sometimes, at the initial stages, there is a lack of instances. It takes more time to create the instance, but now it's much faster to activate your Codespaces and delete it. The earlier Git Codespaces billing setup on GitHub was much simpler. You could easily see how much credit you have, how much you have used, and your balance. Now they have changed it, and it's confusing to understand how much Codespaces time you have, how much you have used, and how much they are charging.
reviewer2748786 - PeerSpot reviewer
Founding BackEnd Engineer
Enhancing productivity with advanced code generation and low-cost accessibility
What they can do further and venture into next is to provide a CLI environment, similar to the command-line interface environment that Cursor offers. It allows for running a cursor agent from the command line to make changes, review pull requests, or access certain other capabilities. These capabilities are currently not in Windsurf. Windsurf focuses on the productivity and the ID/editor part. I would rather look for the inclusion of pull request reviews or a kind of a TRD or technical requirement general documentation generation, or system diagram generation directly from the codebase in Windsurf itself. These should be the next obvious features they launch for developers. In our team, there are certain people who use Windsurf regularly and appreciate using it. However, it is not a collaborative tool where someone is going to use the same tool and interact in the same IDE. Everyone does their local development, pushes it to different Git branches, someone reviews the PR, and then merges the branch. It is very localized in that sense.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable features of the solution are Copilot and Advanced Security."
"The developer experience is consistent, and its pricing makes sense since it optimizes the resources."
"I prefer Codespaces because it gets activated in seconds and has all the pre-dependencies which any developer could need, such as Docker and Python."
"The review functionality of the pull requests is very handy, as not only can you give comments, but you can also suggest replacements for sentences with different words."
"The product allows us to implement feature-related changes or improvements on time. Whenever I write a section of the code or create a new code, it automatically integrates with the former code."
"The integration with Visual Studio Code offers a good and fast user experience that feels like a local experience."
"We see benefits from Codespaces in terms of onboarding new team members; it is very simple."
"Codespaces' most valuable feature is the repository, which helps the developers to work together. Its data commands are also useful."
"As we're experimenting with different AI IDEs, Windsurf has positively impacted my organization by providing options."
"I have seen a return on investment with Windsurf because I have saved time and money and needed fewer resources since using it."
"Windsurf has positively impacted my organization by increasing productivity, because during a one-week hackathon we were able to build a product from scratch that would have taken at least two to three weeks, making the time savings substantial."
"As we're experimenting with different AI IDEs, Windsurf has positively impacted my organization by providing options."
 

Cons

"The technical support could respond faster."
"The earlier Git Codespaces billing setup on GitHub was much simpler. You could easily see how much credit you have, how much you have used, and your balance. Now they have changed it, and it's confusing to understand how much Codespaces time you have, how much you have used, and how much they are charging."
"We get merge conflict errors and need to resolve them."
"When I close the laptop and open it in a different place, the state of the environment disappears, and I need to rerun several commands. This context switch affects productivity."
"The product indicates incorrect statistics."
"The main issue is related to state preservation on a disconnection. When I close the laptop and open it in a different place, the state of the environment disappears, and I need to rerun several commands."
"Sometimes it is just two or three hours a day where they are totally unreachable, and it might happen like five times a month."
"Since using Windsurf, I notice more errors, but we deliver approximately twice as fast."
"I chose 7 out of 10 because I've used Cursor as well, and sometimes I feel Cursor hallucinates less compared to Windsurf."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"From what I've seen, the solution doesn't seem like it's overly expensive for what you get."
"I am using the product’s free version."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Educational Organization
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Codespaces?
The most valuable features of the solution are Copilot and Advanced Security.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Codespaces?
We found the price of Codespaces is acceptable for us.
What needs improvement with Codespaces?
I am not the best person regarding the negative sides of Codespaces. As I mentioned, our team provides different tools for developers, so we are not so deep in every tool. From time to time, we got...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Windsurf?
My experience with Windsurf's pricing, setup cost, and licensing was positive. I received a discount because I joined early, so the license cost or monthly rental of Windsurf has been reasonably pr...
What needs improvement with Windsurf?
I have no suggestions at the moment for how Windsurf can be improved. I would not add more about the needed improvements, even small things that could make my experience better.
What is your primary use case for Windsurf?
I have been using Windsurf off and on for the last year. My main use case for Windsurf is for software development. Currently, we're working on an API, and Windsurf will help us develop a particula...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Dell, Anduril, MongoDB, Zillow, Atlassian
Find out what your peers are saying about Codespaces vs. Windsurf and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.