Windsurf

Editor's Review

Windsurf is now Devin Desktop — the brand is legacy, but the product lives on under Cognition, and the 2026 saga is worth understanding before you pay. The short version: OpenAI's reported $3B acquisition collapsed in July 2025; days later Google DeepMind did a ~$2.4B reverse-acquihire (CEO Varun Mohan, cofounder, and research leads hired; technology licensed non-exclusively — the company itself was not bought); then Cognition (the Devin team) acquired what remained — product, brand, team, IP — at roughly $82M ARR (down from $100M in April 2025 after Anthropic cut Claude access amid acquisition rumors). In 2026 Cognition rebranded the editor as Devin Desktop; windsurf.com redirects to devin.ai. Cognition has since raised over $1B at $26B post-money (May 2026) with Devin ARR at $492M. Pricing: Free tier, Pro $15/user/month, Teams $30/user/month, Enterprise custom. No bring-your-own-key — you use Windsurf's credits and model menu. The Cascade agent is competent everywhere and best-in-class nowhere; reviewers place it behind Cursor for power users and Copilot for pure value. Who should pay? Budget-conscious developers who want guided agent mode with session memory at $0–15/month — the value pick of the AI IDE trio. Who shouldn't? Anyone betting on roadmap stability: most of the people who built Windsurf now work at Google, and Cognition's plan (merging IDE assistance with Devin-style autonomous execution) is ambitious but unproven. Versus Cursor ($20/month): Cursor is the power-user favorite for complex refactors with a stable team; Windsurf/Devin Desktop is cheaper with more hand-holding. Versus GitHub Copilot ($10/month): Copilot is the safer corporate choice. This is the high-upside, high-uncertainty option.