4 ms·

Cursor may be $9B but Aider is priceless

BeetleB 1y ago
Yeah, this is what I don't get. How is Cursor that much better than Aider? When you have a great, free, open source tool, why would an investor pump money into Cursor?
- moltar 1y ago
  EE monies?
- n_ary 1y ago
  Cursor is gated, Aider is too open and unlocked. Also, Cursor starts with a subscription for basic tier which equates to proven revenue and revenue is proof of demand. Aider is… a product of love and is not valuable to investors. Locking down Aider will result in backlash and driving all potential users to cursor/windsurf.
  - BeetleB 1y ago
    Wow. Not sure if this was humor or someone being too literal. Because Aider is open its capabilities will develop faster than Cursor's and thus as soon as people start charging for Cursor everyone will switch to Aider. Cursor has no moat.
- iamsaitam 1y ago
  Why would I use Aider instead of Cursor? One offers me an IDE that I already used with AI capabilities, the other one is in the terminal (according to the homepage)
  - BeetleB 1y ago
    Aider works with any IDE. As in you don't need to type your prompts in a terminal. https://aider.chat/docs/usage/watch.html https://aider.chat/docs/usage/watch.html Furthermore many IDEs have a plug-in for Aider. Is Cursor open source? If not, I expect it to be buggier in the long run. And less featureful. It seriously has no moat.
    - iamsaitam 1y ago
      That's not working in any IDE is it? The crux of the matter is the level of integration, with Cursor (and others) I can apply the suggestions via autocomplete and see git diffs with agent code. I'm not arguing if there's a moat or not for Cursor, but comparing Aider to Cursor is a vastly different UX.
      - BeetleB 1y ago
        > That's not working in any IDE is it? The crux of the matter is the level of integration, with Cursor (and others) I can apply the suggestions via autocomplete and see git diffs with agent code. Would a simple VSCode plugin for Aider not be able to do that? I haven't tried it out, but Aidermacs (https://github.com/MatthewZMD/aidermacs https://github.com/MatthewZMD/aidermacs) is an Emacs plugin that supposedly mimics some of Cursor's feature - but by using Aider. I'm not saying Cursor is bad or anything. It may well be as good as Aider or a bit better. But it's not vastly better. If you had $1M to spare, would you risk investing in Cursor? Especially knowing that open source solutions are as good or at worst not far behind? In the long run, some open source solution (Aider or something else) is going to eat Cursor's lunch. BTW, I too initially wanted something that worked in my IDE. Then I just gave Aider a try and realized I prefer it being an external tool.

Yeah, this is what I don't get. How is Cursor that much better than Aider? When you have a great, free, open source tool, why would an investor pump money into Cursor?

moltar 1y ago
EE monies?
n_ary 1y ago
Cursor is gated, Aider is too open and unlocked. Also, Cursor starts with a subscription for basic tier which equates to proven revenue and revenue is proof of demand. Aider is… a product of love and is not valuable to investors. Locking down Aider will result in backlash and driving all potential users to cursor/windsurf.
- BeetleB 1y ago
  Wow. Not sure if this was humor or someone being too literal. Because Aider is open its capabilities will develop faster than Cursor's and thus as soon as people start charging for Cursor everyone will switch to Aider. Cursor has no moat.
iamsaitam 1y ago
Why would I use Aider instead of Cursor? One offers me an IDE that I already used with AI capabilities, the other one is in the terminal (according to the homepage)
- BeetleB 1y ago
  Aider works with any IDE. As in you don't need to type your prompts in a terminal. https://aider.chat/docs/usage/watch.html https://aider.chat/docs/usage/watch.html Furthermore many IDEs have a plug-in for Aider. Is Cursor open source? If not, I expect it to be buggier in the long run. And less featureful. It seriously has no moat.
  - iamsaitam 1y ago
    That's not working in any IDE is it? The crux of the matter is the level of integration, with Cursor (and others) I can apply the suggestions via autocomplete and see git diffs with agent code. I'm not arguing if there's a moat or not for Cursor, but comparing Aider to Cursor is a vastly different UX.
    - BeetleB 1y ago
      > That's not working in any IDE is it? The crux of the matter is the level of integration, with Cursor (and others) I can apply the suggestions via autocomplete and see git diffs with agent code. Would a simple VSCode plugin for Aider not be able to do that? I haven't tried it out, but Aidermacs (https://github.com/MatthewZMD/aidermacs https://github.com/MatthewZMD/aidermacs) is an Emacs plugin that supposedly mimics some of Cursor's feature - but by using Aider. I'm not saying Cursor is bad or anything. It may well be as good as Aider or a bit better. But it's not vastly better. If you had $1M to spare, would you risk investing in Cursor? Especially knowing that open source solutions are as good or at worst not far behind? In the long run, some open source solution (Aider or something else) is going to eat Cursor's lunch. BTW, I too initially wanted something that worked in my IDE. Then I just gave Aider a try and realized I prefer it being an external tool.