Cursor vs Pi: what developers actually say
Based on 1,189 opinions on Hacker News from developers who discussed these two, most of them first-hand users.
Pi comes out ahead on approval, cost, reliability, and customization. Pi's approval is 84% overall and 80% in the last 90 days, against 55% and 53% for Cursor; its cost/pricing mentions are 29 positive and 5 negative, versus 58 positive and 60 negative for Cursor. Cursor has more positive UX mentions, 101 to 36, and the only code-quality signal, 59 positive to 49 negative, but its reliability is 14 positive to 58 negative. Cursor is better for a GUI IDE with model choice; explicit head-to-head comments picked Pi, 2 to 0.
When developers explicitly said they prefer one or switched: 0 picked Cursor, 2 picked Pi.
Choose Cursor if
- Want a GUI AI IDE with model choice
- Value a larger discussion base
- Want more UX and code-quality reports
Choose Pi if
- Prefer a terminal-first open-source agent
- Want deep customization at low cost
- Care about reliability and local privacy
Where each one wins and loses
Why developers switched
Picked Cursor
No explicit switches recorded.
Picked Pi
Summaries are paraphrased. Each links to the original comment.