Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) vs Zed (2026): Which Vibe Coding App Is Better?

Both are popular AI code editors. Here is how Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) and Zed stack up on price, strengths and weaknesses, and which one we would pick.

Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf)

Cognition's agentic desktop code editor, formerly Windsurf

7.8 /10

Pricing: Free plan, paid from $20/mo

Pros

Cascade agent is good at following your context
Free plan available
MCP and rules support

Cons

Renamed and folded into Devin: features and plans are still changing
Smaller extension ecosystem than Cursor

Visit Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) ↗

Zed

High-performance open-source editor with built-in agents and ACP support

8.0 /10

Pricing: Free plan, paid from $10/mo

Pros

Extremely fast native editor
Runs external agents like Claude Code via ACP
Open source

Cons

Smaller extension ecosystem than VS Code
Windows support is newer

Visit Zed ↗

Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) vs Zed at a glance

	Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf)	Zed
Editor score	7.8 / 10	8.0 / 10
Pricing model	Freemium	Freemium
Starting price	$20/mo	$10/mo
Reader upvotes	0	0
Best for	editor	editor, open source
Agent Skills support	Yes	Yes
Subagents support	Yes	No
MCP support	Yes	Yes
AGENTS.md support	Yes	Yes
Plugins support	Yes	No
Hooks support	Yes	No
Rules support	Yes	Yes
Agent skills in this directory	47	48
Subagents & agents in this directory	9	5
MCP servers in this directory	74	72

Our pick

Zed edges it with a score of 8.0 versus 7.8. Zed is the better fit if you value: extremely fast native editor, runs external agents like claude code via acp. Choose Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) instead if you need: cascade agent is good at following your context, free plan available.