Cursor and Zed, fact by fact
| Fact | Cursor | Zed |
|---|---|---|
| StarsZed has 58,181 more stars (2.7×). | 33,265Verified 8 Oct 2026 | 91,446Verified 8 Oct 2026 |
| Newest commitZed committed 148 days more recently. | 12 May 2026148 days old when we read itVerified 8 Oct 2026 | 8 Oct 20260 days old when we read itVerified 8 Oct 2026 |
| ContributorsZed has 452 more contributors (16×). | 31Verified 8 Oct 2026 | 483Verified 8 Oct 2026 |
| License | not tracked for Cursor | OtherVerified 8 Oct 2026 |
| Latest stable release | not tracked for Cursor | v1.23.2published 7 Oct 2026Verified 8 Oct 2026 |
| Homebrew installsZed has 1,317 more Homebrew installs in 30 days (1.4×). | 3,588 in 30 dayscursorVerified 8 Oct 2026 | 4,905 in 30 dayszedVerified 8 Oct 2026 |
| Repository | cursor/cursorVerified 8 Oct 2026 | zed-industries/zedRustVerified 8 Oct 2026 |
What this page does not answer
Neither Cursor nor Zed has been researched. Every line above is a number read from a repository on the date beside it, so this page compares the two projects and not the two products: it says nothing about who each tool suits, what it is bad at, or what it costs today. We have written those judgments for 12 tools so far and neither of these is one of them.
Questions people ask
- Are Cursor and Zed still maintained?
- Cursor has taken no commit on cursor/cursor (main) for 148 days; the newest is 12 May 2026. Zed committed to zed-industries/zed (main) on 8 Oct 2026. Both readings come from the default branch of each repository, on the date shown beside them.
- Is Cursor or Zed open source?
- We have not read a licence for Cursor. Zed's repository zed-industries/zed reports the Other licence. We read the licence GitHub reports for the repository, which is not the same question as whether the hosted product is free.
How we check this page
- Machine facts. Stars, contributors, the newest commit on the default branch, the licence GitHub reports and the latest stable release come from the GitHub API, and download counts from npm, PyPI, Homebrew and the VS Code Marketplace. Each value carries the day it was last confirmed, never the day this page was built. The line under each label is arithmetic on those two values.
- Judgments. Every claim about what a tool suits, what it is bad at and what it costs is quoted from a page we read, and that page is linked beside the claim. Where there is no link, we wrote no claim.
- Index status. Neither tool is researched, and both repositories are tracked, so the two can be set against each other on facts. So this page is offered to search engines.
Related comparisons
Pairs we can answer for come first.