Cline vs Cursor

Pick two tools from the same category to compare side-by-side.

	Cline Open-source coding agent that runs as an IDE extension and CLI with bring-your-own-key model access.	Cursor AI-native code editor (VS Code fork) with agent mode, codebase indexing.
Category	harness	harness
Vendor type	hybrid	commercial
Pricing	freemium	subscription
Strengths	+ Open source (Apache 2.0) with full BYOK model flexibility + Plan/Act split gives explicit human approval before execution + MCP support and .clinerules for repo-specific configuration + Runs in VS Code, JetBrains, Cursor, and as a CLI	+ Polished IDE UX + Strong codebase indexing + Multi-model support
Tradeoffs	− Token costs fall directly on the user and can run high with frontier models − Per-step approval workflow is slower than fully autonomous harnesses	− Closed product surface; less programmable than CLI harnesses
Used in stacks	0	0