Windsurf vs GitHub Copilot: which AI coding tool is better?

Short answer: pick Windsurf, now called Devin Desktop, if you want to work in one standalone AI code editor with tab completions, a built-in agent and a command centre for running several agents and models side by side. Pick GitHub Copilot if you want AI that plugs into the editor you already use and into GitHub itself, from inline suggestions and agent mode to pull request reviews and tasks you hand to a cloud agent. They are not rivals for the same seat on your screen: Copilot's command-line agent can speak the Agent Client Protocol that Devin Desktop supports, so the two can in principle sit side by side.

Both are listed on Unloc. Unloc cards: Windsurf and GitHub Copilot.

Quick verdict

Plans, usage allowances and model line-ups change often, so check both live pricing pages before you decide. Everything below comes from each company's own website, docs and plan pages.

First, Windsurf is now Devin Desktop

If you search for Windsurf today, you land on Devin Desktop. Cognition, the company behind Windsurf, says Devin Desktop is the new name for Windsurf: the same IDE, editor and features, unified under its Devin brand. Existing users get it as a normal over-the-air update, and Cognition says plans, pricing, extensions, settings and in-progress work all carry over. Cognition's FAQ also says the editor reads AGENTS.md files and can import Cursor rules.

The big change is the default view. Devin Desktop now opens on the Agent Command Center, a Kanban-style board where you manage local and cloud agents, with Spaces to group sessions, pull requests, files and shared context. The classic editor is still there. In this guide we use Windsurf and Devin Desktop for the same product.

What Windsurf (Devin Desktop) does

Cognition describes Devin Desktop as a full IDE with an agent manager built in, not the other way around. The editor, extensions, keybindings and language servers are backwards compatible with Windsurf and VS Code, and its docs say you can import your VS Code or Cursor settings when you start. Inside it you get Tab completions and Supercomplete, which Cognition says predicts what you will do next, not just your next edit, Fast Context for finding the right files and lines quickly, built-in Devin Review for checking diffs, and a browser preview for your app.

Its main local agent is Devin Local, which Cognition says was rewritten from scratch as the successor to Cascade, supports subagents and is more token efficient. You can hand longer work to Devin Cloud, which runs on its own machine, and move sessions between local and cloud with the same context. A Fusion mode pairs a frontier lead model with a cheaper sidekick model to keep costs down. Integrations include Slack, Linear, Notion, Sentry and Datadog.

What GitHub Copilot does

GitHub describes Copilot as an AI assistant that helps you write, understand and ship software. It suggests code as you type, answers questions about a codebase, reviews your changes and works on tasks you assign it. GitHub groups its features into assistive help while you work, agentic work where you describe a goal and Copilot plans, edits files and runs tools, customisations such as instructions, skills and MCP servers, and external agents and models from other providers.

The pitch is that Copilot is built into GitHub, so a change can start as an issue, be picked up by an agent, come back as a pull request, get reviewed for quality and security, and be merged, all with the same context. You reach it from your IDE, the Copilot command-line tool, the Copilot desktop app, github.com and GitHub Mobile. GitHub says the Copilot app and CLI are included in every Copilot plan, and that the app lets you run several agent sessions in parallel, each on its own branch, with Plan, Interactive and Autopilot modes.

New editor vs add-on to your editor

This is the core difference. Windsurf is an editor you move into. You open your project in it, write code with Tab completions, and bring in agents when you want them, with the Agent Command Center to watch several at once. If you want one app where AI help sits on every keystroke and on big tasks, that is its strength, and its docs make switching easier by importing settings from VS Code or Cursor.

Copilot goes the other way. GitHub's docs describe it as something you use in the tools you already have: your IDE, your terminal, the GitHub website. For most supported IDEs the Copilot extension or plugin is the main entry point, so you keep your editor, keybindings and project setup and add Copilot to them. If your team will not change editors, or if different people use different IDEs, Copilot is the lower-friction choice.

Agents and long-running work

Both tools now lean into running many agents. Devin Desktop lets you dispatch local and cloud agents from one board, coordinate subagents that each open their own pull requests, and hand a session from your laptop to Devin Cloud. GitHub's docs describe the same shape on its side: parallel agent sessions in the Copilot app and in VS Code's Agents window, cloud sessions you can start on one surface and continue on another, and automations that run on a schedule or on repository events.

The practical difference is where the work is anchored. With Windsurf, Cognition's own agents and cloud machines sit at the centre and other agents plug in. With Copilot, the anchor is your GitHub repository: you can assign an issue or a prompt to Copilot in the cloud, follow the session from GitHub, the app, the CLI, your editor or your phone, and get a pull request back for review.

Pull requests and code review

This is where Copilot's GitHub roots show. GitHub says Copilot reviews your pull requests and suggests ready-to-apply changes. You request a review from the Reviewers menu or turn on automatic reviews, and by default Copilot leaves a Comment review that does not count toward required approvals. A Fix with Copilot button can hand a review comment to the cloud agent, and Copilot can also review local changes before you open a pull request. With Agent Merge, GitHub says Copilot can watch a pull request and work on blockers you choose, such as failed workflows or merge conflicts.

Windsurf has its own answer: built-in Devin Review, which Cognition says lets you review every diff from where you code, and a pull request view in the Agent Command Center that tracks each session's status. If your team already lives in GitHub pull requests, Copilot's review and hand-off tools are closer to that workflow. If you want to review agent output without leaving the editor, Devin Desktop keeps it in one place.

Models and flexibility

Windsurf gives you a model picker. Cognition's pricing page says paid plans include frontier models from several major providers plus leading open-source models, and its docs recommend Fusion for most users, alongside Cognition's own software engineering models. Usage is billed against the token cost of the model you choose, so cheaper models make your allowance last longer.

Copilot also offers models from several providers, and GitHub's plan docs list models from Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and xAI among others, with the choice depending on your plan and your organisation's policies. If you do not want to choose, an Auto option picks a model for you. GitHub also supports bring your own key in clients including VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Xcode, the CLI and the Copilot app, so you can use your own provider or a local model. Model line-ups change often, so check the live model picker in each tool.

Using them together

Devin Desktop supports the Agent Client Protocol, an open protocol for running third-party agents, and Cognition says any agent that speaks it can be plugged into the Agent Command Center. GitHub's docs say Copilot CLI can run as an agent in any tool that supports the same protocol. Put together, that suggests you could run Copilot's agent inside Devin Desktop, but Cognition's list of example agents does not name Copilot, so treat it as something to test rather than a ready-made setup.

Two caveats from Cognition's docs apply to any outside agent: Devin Desktop's privacy policy and terms do not cover it and billing is directly between you and that agent's provider, and on Enterprise plans third-party agents are off by default until an admin turns them on. On the GitHub side, the simplest combination is not to mix at all: keep your usual editor with Copilot, and use Windsurf when you want its command centre.

IDE support and JetBrains

Windsurf is a standalone editor for Mac, Windows and Linux. Cognition still offers a Windsurf plugin for JetBrains IDEs such as IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm and WebStorm, but its Devin Desktop FAQ says that plugin is in maintenance mode and recommends using Devin over the Agent Client Protocol instead.

GitHub lists Copilot support for VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Xcode, Eclipse, Vim, Neovim and Zed, and its plans page also names Raycast and SQL Server Management Studio. GitHub's docs call the Copilot plugin the broadest integration with the editor for most supported IDEs, and list inline and next edit suggestions, chat, agentic features, code review and commit message generation for JetBrains. Features vary by IDE, so check GitHub's feature matrix for yours. If your team is on JetBrains, Xcode or Visual Studio, Copilot is the more straightforward fit today.

Security, privacy and control

Copilot comes with the controls of a GitHub product. GitHub says that when your organisation or enterprise provides Copilot, administrators decide who has access, set policies for which features are available, exclude files Copilot should not see, and review usage data and audit logs. If matching public code is allowed, Copilot can show a reference to the matching public repositories and their licences. Data handling differs by plan, model provider and feature, so read GitHub's current terms and data pages for the plan you would use.

Cognition's Enterprise plan for Devin lists SAML and OIDC single sign-on, centralised admin controls, teamspace isolation and a dedicated deployment option, including deploying in your own virtual private cloud. For regulated work, read both companies' current security, privacy and data-use pages before you roll either out.

Free plans and pricing

Windsurf has a Free plan with a light quota for coding with agents, limited model choice, unlimited inline edits and unlimited Tab completions. Paid individual plans add bigger quotas, the full model line-up and access to Devin Cloud, a higher tier adds much higher quotas, and team plans add shared billing, an admin dashboard and analytics. Allowances refresh on a daily and weekly basis, and you can buy extra usage at API pricing.

GitHub Copilot has a Free plan with limited completions and a small allowance of AI credits, a separate plan for verified students, and individual paid plans that add paid-plan features such as Copilot in the cloud, code review and model choice. Teachers and maintainers of popular open source projects may qualify for free access to a paid plan. Agent mode, code review, the CLI and the app draw on usage-based AI credits, while GitHub says inline suggestions and next edit suggestions on paid plans do not use credits. Business and Enterprise plans add shared credit pools and central policy control. GitHub's plan pages describe third-party agents on paid plans in slightly different ways, so confirm what your plan includes. Check the live Devin pricing page and GitHub Copilot plans page for current plans, limits and prices.

Who should pick which

• Pick Windsurf if you want one AI editor with Tab completions, a built-in agent and a board for managing many agents.
• Pick Windsurf if you are happy to switch editors, or to import your VS Code or Cursor settings, and want a command centre for agents from several vendors.
• Pick GitHub Copilot if you want AI inside the IDE you already use, including JetBrains, Xcode or Visual Studio.
• Pick GitHub Copilot if your work runs through GitHub issues and pull requests and you want code review and cloud agents there.
• Try both if you like the Devin Desktop command centre but your team standardises on GitHub: use Copilot where your team works, and test running Copilot's agent over the Agent Client Protocol.

Comparing other AI coding tools? See Cursor vs Windsurf, Cursor vs GitHub Copilot, GitHub Copilot vs Claude Code, Claude Code vs Cursor and Replit Agent vs Cursor, or browse Cursor and Claude Code on Unloc.

FAQ

Is Windsurf or GitHub Copilot better for coding?

It depends on how you work. Windsurf, now Devin Desktop, is better if you want a standalone AI editor with Tab completions and a command centre for many agents and models. GitHub Copilot is better if you want AI inside the IDE you already use and across GitHub, from inline suggestions to pull request reviews and cloud agents.

Is Windsurf the same as Devin Desktop?

Yes. Cognition says Devin Desktop is the new name for Windsurf, with the same IDE and features. Existing users get it as an over-the-air update, and their plan, pricing, extensions and settings carry over.

Can I use GitHub Copilot inside Windsurf?

Possibly, through the Agent Client Protocol. Devin Desktop can run any agent that supports it, and GitHub says Copilot CLI can run as an agent for tools that support it. Cognition's list of example agents does not name Copilot, so test it first. Outside agents are billed directly by their provider and are off by default on Enterprise plans.

Are Windsurf and GitHub Copilot free?

Both have a Free plan. Windsurf's has a light agent quota and unlimited Tab completions. Copilot's has limited completions and a small allowance of AI credits, and eligible students, teachers and open source maintainers can get free access to more. Check each live pricing page for current plans and limits.

Which IDEs do Windsurf and GitHub Copilot work in?

Windsurf is its own editor for Mac, Windows and Linux, with a legacy JetBrains plugin in maintenance mode. GitHub Copilot works inside VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Xcode, Eclipse and other editors, and also in a CLI, a desktop app, on github.com and on mobile.