Brackets vs. Cursor

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Brackets
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Brackets is a free and open source text editor developed at Adobe under the MIT license, featuring inline editing, live preview, and a wide range of extensions.N/A
Cursor
Score 9.5 out of 10
N/A
Cursor is an IDE and code editor built for programming with AI. Cursor includes an autocomplete that predicts the next edit. Once enabled, it is always on and will suggest edits to code across multiple lines.
$20
per month
Pricing
BracketsCursor
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Pro
$20
per month
Teams
$40
per month per user
Pro+
$60
per month
Ultra
$200
per month
Enterprise
Custom
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BracketsCursor
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsEvery plan includes a set amount of model usage. Additional usage is based on the models and features used. The Bugbot add-on is available at $40 per month, per user, or with Custom pricing for Enterprise customers. A discount is available for annual billing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BracketsCursor
Considered Both Products
Brackets
Chose Brackets
Brackets can be considered as the barebones version of a more complex piece of software like Dreamweaver. We selected Brackets due to the simplicity of the UI and the ease of use. In our case we do not need all the additional tools and gadgets that other, more complex software …
Chose Brackets
Unfortunately, I haven't used any other code editor and never did any research to find other solutions. I originally discovered the software when taking a class through Udemy and Brackets is what was suggested by the person teaching the course. Since then I've used it from the …
Chose Brackets
Brackets is an open-source IDE and free to use. It is specifically used for developing web applications that provide brackets an edge over the other available IDE in industry. There are more features available in Brackets as compared to other IDE. Being, Open-source, It is …
Chose Brackets
I have used Notepad++ before. I prefer Brackets, the core functionality is similar, but I like the feel and usability more. I think Brackets has some added features and customization abilities as well.
Chose Brackets
Microsoft Visual Studio Code is superior to Brackets. Brackets are superior to Eclipse. I chose Brackets before Visual Studio code was available and have not decided to change for my web view development.
Chose Brackets
Atom is very similar to Brackets as it is a javascript based editor. I haven't used it as much, I tried it briefly when I was having an annoying bug in Brackets. It has a very rich ecosystem of plugins. Some of my learned behaviors and tools from Brackets were missing. I'm …
Chose Brackets
If, you do not want to use Bracket then use Adobe Dreamweaver or Notepad ++. These applications are also good and easy to use on web pages. Although Adobe Dreamweaver is not available for free, Notepad ++ is an open source editor so users can easily download and install the …
Chose Brackets
Have used Notepad++ and Mavens Mate for similar exercises. I appreciate Brackets over both of these tools for a combination of the simplicity but yet useful functionality that Brackets provides. Will take Brackets over either of these tools any day for css and html editing.
Chose Brackets
I use Brackets and Dreamweaver. If I need to test multiple browsers, I use Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver is a better solution for browser testing.
Chose Brackets
Brackets is kind of in the middle ground between Notepad++ and Visual Studio Code. It is a little smarter than Notepad++ (though both have a good collection of plugins) but a little slower and not quite as smart as Visual Studio Code. Brackets really favors the web developer, …
Cursor
Chose Cursor
We use both Claude Code and Cursor. However, we find Cursor to be quite fast compared to Claude Code. Claude Code seems to be able to reach higher levels of intelligence, though that's not really necessary much of the time. The speed of Cursor can really stand out in comparison.
Chose Cursor
Cursor is superior because its integration is easy; it provides the same benefits as the others, but it does so by managing LLMs in a more intuitive way. The fact that it is now proprietary to SpaceXAI might make the use of Grok more efficient and maybe cheaper for users …
Chose Cursor
Cursor contains multiple AI model from different LLM Model builders, so Cursor stacks up against them with even their model also and other models also and gives a free composer model to do coding easily for the developers. Even when the token completed for the subscription …
Chose Cursor
graphical user interface is really the thing that setting apart because other code harnesses are really focused on commandline interfaces but whenever you want a good graphical interface with all of the tools and workflow that us software developers we want I think that Cursor …
Chose Cursor
Better agentic coding quality, inherent context of code by repo caching, easier to configure guardrails - these all amount to better quality code with less iteration and fussing around with the agent to get it to do what you want.
Chose Cursor
Softr's chat AI is less sophisticated. However, it is great for building simple database-driven webapps. I have used it together with Airtable to build a very simple webapp. It is drag and drop. Vercel V0's chatAI is faster and more friendly. The user interface is also …
Chose Cursor
Cursor has built-in AI and is a fork based on Visual Studio Code. So the fact is, it is better than Visual Studio Code because of AI, and if you are a developer that uses more than notebooks, in my opinion, it surely beats Jupyter Notebook, too. It is my go-to for basically all …
Best Alternatives
BracketsCursor
Small Businesses
BBEdit
BBEdit
Score 10.0 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Vim
Vim
Score 9.7 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Enterprises
Vim
Vim
Score 9.7 out of 10

No answers on this topic

All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BracketsCursor
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.6
(0 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.2
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BracketsCursor
Likelihood to Recommend
When I'm designing a specific page, I can line up all the folders and files in the left File Tree panel. This keeps me organized and able to find things as I need them. Once I'm organized, I'm ready to start coding. Brackets allows you to control quite a bit of your environment, which contributes to your efficiency at coding in an effort free environment. One of the standard features of the color coding of tags really makes a difference. As I'm reviewing the code, generally I can quickly notice a missing </> or some other typo. Plus the color coding often helps you quickly find a particular line you need. And speaking of color, when you hover over a hexadecimal value in the code, a box pops up showing you the color of that code. This is particularly helpful when you have multiple colors and you want to make sure that your CSS is spot on.
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Cursor is really great when you care most about access to a variety of models. It's very high-performing for code indexing, meaning models run very fast.
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Pros
  • Editing CSS classes are done particularly well. It’s very simple and straightforward. Brackets will throw errors while editing so you know where you may have made a wrong turn. Very helpful
  • The simple UI is refreshing. Often times code editors throw too much on the screen. Brackets keeps it simple and it’s appreciated!
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  • Generate code
  • Guide webapp development
  • Guide webapp deployment
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Cons
  • As it is a javascript based program it can have some performance issues, especially with larger files (too large and it can't even open them).
  • Themes are limited to the editor area, but it would be nice to be able to customize the file-tree and gutter areas.
  • And the smallest quibble of all, make the open files area resizable. It's a little annoying to have to scroll up and down when you have plenty of screen space to see all the open files.
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  • The composer tool can still get more accurate
  • More LLM models
  • automate the creation of folders and files in a project
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Usability
As far as usability, text editors are about as simple as you can get in the GUI world. The little features that make Brackets unique are intuitive enough that you don't really need a manual to find them and come to rely on them. If anybody knows enough about coding and markup enough to be looking for different editors, they will be up to speed before the download finishes.
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it is really easy to set up and to connect with GitHub or any other git manager that you have and our team really loves the fact that whenever we do work, it’s very easy to open PRS for a Sr software staff to check the PRS and just merge it
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Support Rating
Brackets has a very extensive support site. Everything is organized nicely for easy navigation. If you can't find an answer you can easily file an issue with them and they will be quick to respond. What's cool is you can also message them on Slack, if you request an invite first. Slack is a very popular program right now so it's great having that integration.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Atom is very similar to Brackets as it is a javascript based editor. I haven't used it as much, I tried it briefly when I was having an annoying bug in Brackets. It has a very rich ecosystem of plugins. Some of my learned behaviors and tools from Brackets were missing. I'm sure there were third-party plugins to match it, but I never got the chance to dig into it. Sublime Text is actually my other daily work horse and it compliments Brackets well. It is a compiled, native application. As such I can open the massive csv files (millions of rows) that Brackets just can't. They won't replace each other and they work well together.
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Cursor is superior because its integration is easy; it provides the same benefits as the others, but it does so by managing LLMs in a more intuitive way. The fact that it is now proprietary to SpaceXAI might make the use of Grok more efficient and maybe cheaper for users compared to Claude and Gemini.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • Since this is an open-source tool, the ROI is very high. Anything it produces has a huge return on such a small investment of time learning to use the tool.
  • I was able to use this to augment the lackluster web development editor used by Eclipse. I use Brackets for the view, Eclipse for the server logic and server plugin.
  • The amount of convenient open-source plugins have improved productivity (minification, formatting, beautification).
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  • Mostly I have positive impact on Cursor only for implementing complex features and functionalities.
  • Cursor mainly save our development time testing time more than 50%.
  • Cursor helps to improve code quality of our all project folder and files.
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ScreenShots