Claude Code vs Cursor: Why I Quit The Editor For The Terminal

The short answer

Claude Code. It's the only coding tool I use now, and I pay $100 a month for Claude Max to run it. Cursor is the better pick if you live in an editor and want to read every diff, and at $20 it costs a fifth of what I pay. I don't live in an editor, so I quit it.

Why I Quit Cursor

I paid $20 a month for Cursor Pro. Then I stopped opening it. Nothing dramatic happened. I just kept doing the real work in Claude Code, and the Cursor window turned into a thing I paid for and didn't touch.

Here's the context that decides this whole comparison. I'm not a full-time software engineer. I run websites and marketing work, which means a lot of HTML, a lot of copy, some scripts, deploys, and analytics. Code is how the work gets done. It isn't the work.

Cursor is built for people who write code. It's an editor first, based on the VS Code codebase, with an AI agent living inside it. Claude Code is built the other way around. It's an agent first, and it doesn't much care whether you ever open the file. For how I work, that one design choice settled it. I quit Cursor, and Claude Code is now the only coding tool I use.

The Model Isn't The Difference

Cursor can run Claude. Cursor's model list includes Anthropic's Opus, Sonnet and Haiku right next to OpenAI, Google, and Cursor's own Composer model. So you're not picking a model when you pick between these two. You're picking a workflow.

Most comparisons skip this. The model underneath can be identical. What changes is everything around it. Where you give the instruction, how much of the project the agent sees, what it's allowed to run, and what it remembers from yesterday.

Cursor's model menu is a real advantage if you like switching per task. I don't. I want one tool that knows my projects, and I'm fine with that tool only running Claude.

How I Actually Use Claude Code

I describe the outcome and Claude Code does the work across the whole project. It reads the files it needs, edits several at once, runs shell commands, and handles git. I review what changed. I don't read code line by line, and I don't need to.

A normal request sounds like "add this review to the homepage list, bump the counts, add it to the sitemap, and check the page renders." That's four jobs across three files plus a screenshot. In Claude Code it's one prompt. It finds the files, makes the edits, runs the check, and tells me what it did.

In a normal week that means editing HTML, CSS and scripts across a whole repo, running shell commands and reading the output so I don't have to, handling git diffs and commits only when I say so, and pulling data from connected tools before it writes a word.

To be fair to Cursor, its agent does plenty of this too, and it now ships a CLI that runs agents in the terminal. But Cursor's center of gravity is still the editor, the diff view, and the Tab key. Claude Code's center is the prompt. When your job isn't writing code, the prompt is where you want to live.

CLAUDE.md Files Are Why I Stayed

Every project I run has a CLAUDE.md file with its rules, and Claude Code loads it at the start of every session. My voice rules, banned words, deploy rules, and "never push without asking" all live there. I stopped repeating myself.

It sounds like a small feature. It's the one I'd miss most. Before, every session opened with me re-explaining the same things. Which folder is live. Which words I never use. Which punctuation I hate. Now the file does that, one for the whole machine and one per project, and Claude keeps its own memory notes from the corrections I give it.

Cursor has its own version, called rules, stored in the project and applied to the agent. So it's not that Cursor can't do this. It's that in Claude Code this file is the first thing I set up in any project, and everything else I use builds on top of it.

Skills And MCP Plug My Data In

Skills are reusable instruction packs, and MCP connections pipe outside data straight into the session. Together they're why Claude Code does my marketing work, not just my coding work.

A skill is a folder of instructions Claude loads when a task calls for it. I have one for scaffolding a new review on this site, one for pre-publish checks, and one for writing a handoff when I close a session. I write the process once. After that, "new review" runs the same steps every time.

MCP is the other half. I've connected Granola's MCP server, so the Granola notes from my calls are readable inside a session. Search Console and analytics plug in the same way. So "look at what this page ranks for and rewrite the intro" is one request with real data behind it, instead of me exporting a CSV and pasting it in.

Cursor's Individual plan lists MCPs, skills and hooks as well. I just built my setup in Claude Code first, and moving it would buy me nothing.

I Talk To It More Than I Type

Most of my prompts are dictated. Over 90 days, about 62 percent of what I dictated with Wispr Flow, roughly 5,471 prompts, went into Claude Code or another AI chat window. That habit fits a prompt-first tool and fights an editor-first one.

Dictation changes how you prompt. You talk in outcomes, not instructions. "The pricing table on the Fathom post is stale, check their site and fix it" is the kind of sentence I'd say out loud and never bother typing. Claude Code takes that and goes. In an editor I'd still be clicking into the right file first.

I get into the dictation side in the Wispr Flow post.

Parallel Work And The Desktop App

Claude Code can split a job across subagents that run in parallel, and the Claude desktop app runs Claude Code too. I use both. The terminal isn't a requirement anymore, which matters if the word terminal scares you off.

Subagents are the underrated part. I can have three posts researched at once, or one agent checking pricing pages while another drafts. Each works in its own context and reports back. It feels closer to delegating than to autocomplete.

The desktop app's Code tab gives you the same agent with a sidebar of sessions you can run side by side. If you'd rather click buttons than stare at a blinking cursor, start there.

Where Cursor Is Honestly Better

If you write code for a living and want to see every change as it happens, Cursor is the better tool. Cursor Tab predicts your next edit as you type, diff review lives right in the editor, and you can swap models whenever you want. I'm biased, not blind.

Anyone who already uses VS Code will feel at home. Cursor imports your extensions, themes and keybindings, you keep your hands on the code, and the AI rides along. For engineers who have to understand every line they ship, that's the correct design. Reading diffs line by line isn't a flaw. For them it's the job.

Price is the other honest win. Cursor Pro is $20. I pay $100 for Claude Max. That's $80 more a month, $960 a year, and it's real money for one person. If you mostly edit code by hand and the budget is tight, stay on Cursor and don't let a review talk you out of it.

Pricing, Head To Head

Both start at $20. Claude Pro at $20 a month includes Claude Code, and so does every paid Claude plan. Cursor Pro is also $20. I pay $100 for Claude Max 5x because Claude Code is my whole workflow, and Claude's usage limits are shared across chat and code.

Here it is straight from both pricing pages, checked September 28, 2026.

The top tiers land at the same $200. The middle is where they split. Cursor Pro+ sits at $60, and Claude has nothing between $20 and $100. Sources are claude.com/pricing, Anthropic's Max plan help page for the $200 tier, and cursor.com/pricing. Both change often. Check before you quote me.

The Full Comparison

Cursor is an AI editor for people who write code. Claude Code is an AI agent for people who'd rather describe the result. Pick by which of those sentences sounds like you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Claude Code better than Cursor?

For me, yes. Claude Code works as an agent across the whole project and fits someone who describes outcomes instead of editing code by hand. If you're a developer who wants inline autocomplete and wants to review every diff in an editor, Cursor is the better fit.

Can Cursor use Claude models?

Yes. Cursor's model list includes Anthropic's Claude models alongside OpenAI, Google and Cursor's own Composer. So the model isn't what separates the two tools. The workflow around it is.

Is Claude Code included in the Claude Pro plan?

Yes. Claude's pricing page lists Claude Code as included on Pro at $20 a month and on both Max plans. It isn't included on the Free plan. Usage limits are shared between chat and Claude Code, so heavy coding eats into the same pool.

How much does Cursor cost?

As of September 2026, Cursor's Hobby plan is free with limited agent requests. Pro is $20 a month, Pro+ is $60, Ultra is $200, and Teams is $40 per user per month. Enterprise is custom pricing.

Do you need to know how to code to use Claude Code?

Less than you'd think. I'm not a full-time engineer, and I describe what I want instead of writing it. You still need to check the result and know your project well enough to say what done looks like. The desktop app is an easier start than the terminal.

Why pay $100 for Claude Max instead of $20 for Pro?

Because Claude Code is the only coding tool I use, and usage limits are shared across chat and code. Max 5x gives five times Pro's usage per session. If you're only trying Claude Code, start on Pro at $20 and move up if you run into the limits.