Claude Code vs Cursor: My Take

I’ve been trying Claude Code for the past week - code features, skills, working through MD files, upfront task planning. The approach is interesting, but my feelings are mixed.

Where Claude shines

Skills + md files are genuinely great when you’re:

• starting a new project
• thinking about architecture
• breaking down a large task into steps

Claude thinks first (and thoroughly - almost academically at times), then writes code. It feels like solid engineering work.

Where Cursor wins

But in everyday development - fixes, small tweaks, refactoring - all that md-based planning starts to slow you down.

Cursor feels:

• faster
• simpler
• cheaper (subjectively)

Two types of AI

It’s like Cursor is AI for execution, and Claude Code is AI for thinking.

One more thing that’s hard to ignore: a Claude Pro subscription with heavy Code usage burns through credits fast. Large contexts, long plans - tokens fly away quickly.

The ideal setup is probably both tools for different jobs. Claude for architecture and planning, Cursor for the daily grind.