As AI-powered developer tools continue to transform how we write and optimize code, Windsurf and Continue have emerged as two prominent solutions offering advanced code completion and AI-driven assistance.
While both tools provide powerful features, choosing the right one for your workflow can depend on whether you prefer a commercial, managed service or a customizable, open-source solution.
In addition to code generation tools like Windsurf and Continue, maintaining high-quality code is essential. Greptile offers AI-powered code reviews to catch bugs, enforce best practices, and improve code maintainability, complementing your code generation assistant to ensure your projects stay secure and well-optimized.
This comparison will help you understand the key differences between Windsurf and Continue, and decide which is best suited for your development needs in 2025.
🛠️ Feature Comparison
📝 Code Completion
Windsurf
Windsurf excels in sophisticated code completion, offering not only inline suggestions but also multi-line completions. It adapts to your unique coding style, providing boilerplate code, snippets, and fill-in-the-middle completions. The tool leverages powerful LLMs such as GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 to ensure high-quality, contextually relevant suggestions for a variety of development needs.
Continue
Continue provides intelligent, context-aware code completion through inline suggestions and streaming diff previews. Its highlight-and-edit functionality allows developers to accept or reject changes in real time. The integration is seamless with your codebase, providing relevant suggestions that make it ideal for teams working on complex projects or fast-paced development cycles.
💬 AI Chat Capabilities
Windsurf
Windsurf features its Cascade AI assistant, which adapts to your workflow with two distinct modes: Write Mode for direct code modifications, and Chat Mode for interactive inquiries. This integration ensures that developers can access AI assistance without leaving their IDE environment, making it a powerful tool for real-time collaboration and problem-solving.
Continue
Continue offers an AI chat interface built directly into the IDE. It provides real-time responses to coding queries, maintains context throughout conversations, and supports follow-up questions. This makes Continue an excellent option for teams needing iterative improvements and troubleshooting within the development process.
📂 Context Awareness
Windsurf
Windsurf demonstrates strong context awareness, understanding both local and broader project context. It provides suggestions based on your current file, imported libraries, and overall project structure. This feature is particularly valuable for teams working with large, complex codebases that require highly accurate and relevant code completions.
Continue
Continue offers exceptional custom context integration. It maintains full awareness across chat sessions and code completions, allowing for more tailored suggestions based on your project’s specific needs. Whether you're working on an evolving project or need detailed suggestions for a specialized task, Continue can adapt to your development style.
🔒 Privacy & Security
Windsurf
Windsurf prioritizes privacy with transparent data handling policies. It offers users the ability to opt-out of telemetry collection for code snippets, ensuring that sensitive information remains protected. Its enterprise-level security options also provide peace of mind for teams with stringent data protection requirements.
Continue
As an open-source tool, Continue offers full transparency in its code handling, allowing developers to audit the source code and modify it as needed. The ability to self-host Continue gives organizations complete control over their data, making it a strong choice for those with strict privacy and security needs.
💸 Pricing
Windsurf
- Free Plan
- 5 User Prompt credits
- 5 Flow Action credits
- Access to Cascade Base Model
- Pro Plan
- $15 per month
- 500 User Prompt credits
- 1500 Flow Action credits
- Priority access to Cascade Base Model
- Pro Ultimate
- $60 per month
- Unlimited User Prompt credits
- 3000 Flow Action credits
- Priority access to Cascade Base Model
Continue
- Free Open Source
- Free forever
- Real-time code suggestions
- Automated refactoring
- Testing and debugging assistance
- Enterprise
- Enhanced features
- Scalability
- Enhanced security and privacy
- Dedicated support
🏆 Verdict: Which One Should You Pick?
Both Windsurf and Continue offer powerful AI-driven development assistance, each with distinct advantages. Windsurf's commercial model offers a polished solution with managed services, ideal for teams seeking advanced features like terminal integration and enterprise support. On the other hand, Continue’s open-source approach appeals to developers looking for transparency, customization, and complete control over their data and environment.
- Choose Windsurf if you need a ready-to-use, enterprise-grade solution with professional support and robust AI capabilities.
- Choose Continue if you value flexibility, transparency, and want to take full control of your development toolset, all while benefiting from a strong open-source community.
Regardless of your choice, integrating an AI-powered assistant into your workflow can dramatically improve productivity and code quality. If you’re looking for ways to maintain high-quality code across your projects, consider Greptile’s AI code review tool to ensure better security, maintainability, and accuracy.