Staxly

Windsurf vs Zed: pricing, quotas & features (2025)

Agentic IDE (formerly Codeium) — Cascade AI flow + SWE-1.5 model
vs. High-performance code editor, built in Rust, with AI + collaboration

Data sourced from vendor documentation · Last updated May 2026

Windsurf website ↗Zed editor ↗

Summary

Windsurf and Zed are both ai-coding platforms, addressing the same core use case with different implementation philosophies and trade-offs. Both offer a free tier, making it easy to prototype without a credit card. Zed's paid plans start at $10/month, lower than Windsurf's entry point at $20/month. Zed has a broader documented feature set (20 vs 13 features). Budget-sensitive teams will find Zed easier to justify early on. All pricing and quota data below is sourced from Windsurf and Zed's official documentation — not generated by AI or estimated.

Windsurf vs Zed: Comparativa de precios, cuotas y características (2025)

En esta comparativa analizamos Windsurf y Zed lado a lado — incluyendo precios mensuales, límites del tier gratuito, características técnicas, cuotas de uso (almacenamiento, transferencia, usuarios activos mensuales) y los interfaces de desarrollo disponibles. Todos los datos proceden de la documentación oficial de cada proveedor, no de respuestas generadas por IA.

Windsurf es una plataforma de la categoría ai-coding — Agentic IDE (formerly Codeium) — Cascade AI flow + SWE-1.5 model. Ofrece 6 tiers de precio: Free gratuito, Light gratuito, Pro desde $20/mes, Teams desde $40/mes. Su catálogo en Staxly documenta 13 características y 5 interfazes para desarrolladores.

Zed pertenece a la categoría ai-coding — High-performance code editor, built in Rust, with AI + collaboration. Ofrece 5 tiers de precio: Free gratuito, Zed Pro (trial) gratuito, BYO API Key gratuito, Zed Pro desde $10/mes. Su catálogo documenta 20 características y 7 interfazes para desarrolladores.

A continuación encontrarás los tiers de precio completos de ambas plataformas, una matriz de cuotas del tier gratuito (transferencia, almacenamiento, MAU, llamadas a la API y otros límites), el listado completo de características y los interfaces (CLI, SDKs, REST, GraphQL, MCP) disponibles para integrar cada servicio.

¿Necesitas estos datos en tu agente de IA (Claude Code, Cursor, Zed)? Instala gratis el servidor MCP de Staxly y tendrás acceso estructurado a Windsurf, Zed y más de 130 plataformas para desarrolladores.

Pricing tiers

Windsurf

Free
Daily + weekly refresh of basic quota. Includes SWE-1.5 + Cascade (limited) + Tab.
Free
Light
Unlimited with daily + weekly refresh. Free higher quota tier.
$0 base (usage-based)
Pro
$20/month. All premium models. Fast Context. Usage billed at API price.
$20/mo
Teams
$40/user/month. Team + admin dashboard + RBAC.
$40/mo
Max
$200/month. Unlimited + all features.
$200/mo
Enterprise
Custom. Unlimited + SSO + SOC 2 + on-prem option.
Custom
Windsurf website ↗

Zed

Free
$0. Full editor, extensions, collaboration. AI assistant with BYO API key or limited free tier.
Free
Zed Pro (trial)
$0 limited trial. Zed-hosted AI with Claude/GPT, 150 interactions/mo on Sonnet-tier models.
$0 base (usage-based)
BYO API Key
$0 for Zed. Full AI assistant with your own Claude / GPT / Gemini / Ollama keys — passthrough cost only.
$0 base (usage-based)
Zed Pro
$10/user/mo. 500 Claude Sonnet interactions + unlimited edit-predictions, priority routing.
$10/mo
Zed Business
$20/user/mo. 1,000+ Claude Sonnet interactions, org-level billing, priority support.
$20/mo
Zed editor ↗

Free-tier quotas head-to-head

Comparing free on Windsurf vs free on Zed.

MetricWindsurfZed
No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers.

Features

Windsurf · 13 features

  • .windsurfrules — Project-level system prompts.
  • Bring Your Own Key — Use your OpenAI/Anthropic/Azure keys to bypass quotas.
  • Cascade — AI agent flow with read/write tool use across files.
  • Chat Panel — Sidebar chat with codebase context.
  • Command (inline edit) — Ctrl/Cmd+I → natural language edits.
  • Deploys — One-click deployment to Netlify + custom targets.
  • Fast Context — Optimized context retrieval engine for codebase queries.
  • Image Input — Drag screenshots into chat for context.
  • MCP Support — Hook MCP servers for extended tools.
  • Memories — Persistent notes Cascade can refer to.
  • Previews — Live preview pane inside IDE for web apps.
  • Tab Completions — Next-edit + inline completions, multi-cursor aware.
  • Terminal Integration — Cascade reads + writes terminal. Confirms risky ops.

Zed · 20 features

  • AI Assistant — Inline edits + agent panel.
  • Agent Panel — Multi-step AI tasks with tool use.
  • Channels (Multiplayer) — Real-time shared editing.
  • Edit Prediction (Zeta) — Next-edit prediction model.
  • Editor — Core Rust-based editor.
  • Extensions (WASM) — WASM-based extension system.
  • Git Integration — Diff view, branches, blame.
  • GitHub Copilot Support — Works alongside Copilot subscription.
  • Integrated Terminal — Built-in shell.
  • LSP Support — Works with all LSP language servers.
  • MCP Support — Connect to any MCP server.
  • Multibuffer — Edit multiple files in one view.
  • Remote Dev (SSH) — Edit remote filesystems natively.
  • Screen Share — Share editor view live.
  • Sub-16ms Latency — GPU-accelerated rendering.
  • Tasks — Configurable build/test/run tasks.
  • Themes — Built-in + community themes.
  • Tree-sitter Syntax — Incremental parsing for instant highlighting.
  • Vim Mode — First-class Vim/Helix bindings.
  • Voice Channels — Talk while pair programming.

Developer interfaces

KindWindsurfZed
CLIWindsurf CLIzed CLI (shell integration)
MCPMCP Support—
OTHER.windsurfrules, JetBrains / Xcode / Eclipse / Neovim Plugins, Windsurf Desktop AppCommand Palette (cmd+shift+p), Multiplayer / Channels, Remote Development (SSH), Zed AI Assistant, Zed Editor, Zed Extensions

Key takeaways

  • Both Windsurf and Zed offer a free tier — Windsurf ("Free") and Zed ("Free") — with no credit card required to start.
  • The entry-level paid plan is $20/month for Windsurf (Pro) vs. $10/month for Zed (Zed Pro).
  • Zed has a broader documented feature set (20 features) vs. Windsurf (13 features) in Staxly's catalog.
  • Developer integrations differ: only Windsurf offers MCP.
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Some links to Windsurf and Zed may be affiliate links — Staxly may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.

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