DeepSeek vs Windsurf
A side-by-side look at pricing, free plans, platforms and features, for tools that both cover coding.
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| Feature |  DeepSeek |  Windsurf |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free plan · from $20/month |
| Free to start | Yes | Yes |
| Best for | Chatbots, Coding, Research | Coding |
| Who uses it | Developers, Students, Researchers | Developers |
| Works on | Web | Web, API, Slack |
| About | DeepSeek offers free chat access to its large language models, including a reasoning mode that works through maths, logic and coding problems step by step. The models are also available through a low-cost API and as open weights for developers. | Windsurf is an AI-powered code editor whose agent understands your project, edits several files, runs commands and keeps context across a session. It also offers plugins for other editors. |
Which one should you pick?
Windsurf also runs on API, Slack. Both are described from their official websites; try each with a real task from your own work before you commit, since quality depends heavily on the job.
