PhpStorm vs. Windsurf

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
PhpStorm
Score 9.4 out of 10
N/A
JetBrains supports PhpStorm, an integrated development environment (IDE).
$9.90
per month per user
Windsurf
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Windsurf (formerly Codeium) is an AI dev tool that is self-hosted for security, with features including rapid code autocomplete, in-editor AI chat assistant, repo natural language search, end-to-end data encryption.
$15
per month for 500 prompt credits/month Equivalent to 2,000 GPT-4.1 prompts (4 prompts per credit)
Pricing
PhpStormWindsurf
Editions & Modules
For Individuals
$99
per year per user
For Organizations
$249
per year per user
Pro
$15
per month 500 credits/mo
Team
$30
per month per user (500 credits/user/mo)
Enterprise
$60
per month per user (up to 200 users & 1,000 credits/user/mo)
Enterprise (more than 200 uses)
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
PhpStormWindsurf
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
PhpStormWindsurf
Best Alternatives
PhpStormWindsurf
Small Businesses
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
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Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
PhpStormWindsurf
Likelihood to Recommend
9.7
(20 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
9.2
(5 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.4
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
PhpStormWindsurf
Likelihood to Recommend
JetBrains
PhpStorm is well suited for any project that utilizes PHP. I have used it on Windows, Ubuntu, and Mac OS and it works great on all those platforms. Having a solution that keeps the developer from having to constantly switch tools to do their job is invaluable. Whether you're a junior developer, front end engineer or a senior developer, PhpStorm is a great product that will help you get your work done.
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Cognition AI, Inc.
If you already have technical knowledge and understanding of coding, Windsurf could be a valuable platform to debug and rewrite code. It was helpful to me to expand coding, since I am not a traditionally programmer. I was able to enhance my base code and functionality much quicker than manually trying.
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Pros
JetBrains
  • Database browsing, Remote host browsing, and all the deep seated customizations for both the UI and Technical feasability are the result of an amazing integrity and compatibility with most components and technologies.
  • The built-in shell is insanely helpful for traversing code in order to debug scripts with ease, and the plug-in system makes this software quite extensible.
  • Not to mention the variety of options and settings (divided into global settings and per-project settings) are both intuitive & easy to use, especially the fact that I can export and import them across my workstations while maintaining my spacing & indentation, highlighting, inspection patterns and syntax styling.
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Cognition AI, Inc.
  • Quick code isolation of sytax errors
  • quick suggestions on how to correct coding error
Read full review
Cons
JetBrains
  • Some of the newest github copilot features lag behind what's being done in vs code and would be nice if more of the newer features were brought over though this has greatly improved recently
  • Interface can be a little overwhelming for newcomers
  • Some features like rainbow brackets should be native rather than addon
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Cognition AI, Inc.
  • Windsurf is target to more medium to advanced users
  • Windsurf does fast debugging, but technical skills are needed.
  • Windsurf is not as intuitive as I initially thought.
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Usability
JetBrains
PhpStorm is very easy to use, once you get the hang of it. It can take a while to get the hang of it because there's so many options, some of which are buried in the imposing settings panel. It could use some help with multi-cursor, especially multi-file editing but that's a minor gripe.
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Cognition AI, Inc.
Windsurf is a good tool for developers with more than basic coding skills. I would recommend it as a tool to quickly mitigate coding errors and issues. I did not take a deeper dive into the integrated extensions, but the library of extensions appear to be solid. An experience developer could quickly launch this platform, scan and test coding, and resolve issues quickly. I did not test this for larger code sets.
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Support Rating
JetBrains
The JetBrains community is all about helping others succeed, even in the most obscure setups. I have never had a question go unanswered, or I have never been able to come up with empty results in searching for the answer. My questions or concerns are typically address from other users in the community, so timing is pretty quick for a response
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Cognition AI, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
JetBrains
Easier to use, more features, more reliable. Much more purpose built with specific integrations aimed directly at php code instead of the broad generic interfaces the other software have that are aiming to support many different languages.
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Cognition AI, Inc.
Windsurf would be more comparable to GitHub Copilot or Perplexity to me. I think it's more of a pure code debugging line by line than some of the other tools listed above, however, they all have some capabilities to rewrite and test new coding. It boils down to what toolset you are most comfortable with. I typically will work with two platforms with the same issue to see how it is approached and the differences.
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Return on Investment
JetBrains
  • PhpStorm decreased the time to market of new features - we are following the Agile SCRUM methodology with 2 weeks sprints. Using PhpStorm helped with releasing UI features even faster than 2 weeks.
  • Considering the price of the license and the cost of the server where we run it, the ROI is still high due to less time spent by developers with writing code, debugging, refactoring etc. Especially when you have highly paid developers.
  • Increased people's happiness - by using a modern tool with lots of features which has made their work easier.
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Cognition AI, Inc.
  • ROI is significant time saved from debugging, rewriting code, and testing
  • AI generated development can test executable code in a controlled environment
Read full review
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