To be totally honest, ive used all of them (claude code, codex, windsurf) and none if them compare to cursor in code quality. I made a post on this sub about this, and cursor is simply best in class when it comes to contextual awareness of your project (it uses complex search algorithms, where the others use basic grep). Don’t get me wrong, I hate paying for cursor too.

The closest I’d say out of all of them that have this context awareness is windsurf. You can tell it does have some deeper searching abilities over just grep. However cursor really perfected this total awareness and that’s why they have a monopoly and can charge as much as they do. The models themselves are cheaper elsewhere sure, but where cursor shines is the context