Windsurf IDE Review 2026 — The AI-First Editor

Windsurf is the underdog of AI code editors. It does not have Cursor’s hype or Copilot’s install base. But it has something neither of them has — Cascade. Cascade is an AI agent that understands your entire codebase, plans multi-step edits, and executes them while explaining every decision. It is Windsurf’s killer feature. I used Windsurf for real projects over several weeks. Here is my honest review. What Is Windsurf? Windsurf is an AI-first code editor built on VS Code. It was originally called Codeium, and it started as a free AI autocomplete extension. In 2024, it became a full IDE. In late 2025, Cognition AI (the company behind Devin) acquired Windsurf for around $250 million. ...

July 11, 2026 · 8 min