Best AI Code editor EVER? (Cursor vs Windsurf vs Bolt.new)

by the end of this video you will know what is the best no code AI coding tool on the planet bolt. new cursor or wind surf last video I made I declared wind surf the best AI coding tool based on me just using it and building an app people got pissed the comments were crazy everyone was hating on me it's my best performing video ever but I stand by that so this video we're going to put it to the test I'm going to build the same chatbot app in bold. new and cursor and wind surf I'm going to score each one based on these scientific methods and facts here in this data total time prompts made errors ran into ease of use 1 to 10 quality of app 1 to 10 so the quality of the chatbot app I'm going to score each one I'm going to build the app out in each and we're going to know for a stone Cold Fact which one is the best if you stick with me to the end you'll know which AI coding tool to use for the rest of your life let's get into it so let's start with bolt we are going to build a chatbot AI app in Bolt we're going to make this a little bit more complex than your basic to-do list app so we can put it to the test here we're going to have a front end of next we're going to have a back end of superbase we're going to use the chat GPT API and we're going to store all our chat logs in superbase so we can see how easy this will be to build the app in Bolt in cursor in Wind surf again here's the score we're going to use so I'm going to start a timer on my phone I'm going to also count the amount of prompts we have to use to build this app we're going to count the amount of Errors we run into along the way and then I'm personally going to rate it kind of subjectively e use and quality of the app that comes out quality of the chatbot app okay so here's the prompt we're going to use we're going to use the same beginning prompt in all three apps I want to build an AI content coach chatbot app so we're going to make an interesting chatbot app here it's going to be a Content coach that helps you out with content that uses the chat GPT API the back end should be superbase all our chat log should be stored in the database this should be using nextjs make app look pretty so we're going to see which app comes out best which app uses the least amount of prompts let's put this to the test and hit it so this is bolt.

new for those who don't know bolt. new was really the first kind of agentic AI app put out where an AI agent goes and builds out most the app for you what makes it different is it's built on the web it's not really built in an IDE so it's supposed to be a lot more beginner friendly a lot easier to use you put in a prompt and it kind of installs all the tech and builds everything out for you as you can see here on the left hand side it's installing dependencies it's figuring out which Tech to use it's writing out all the code for us so this was kind of the original agentic AI app where you had an AI agent going in and doing everything for you I had some concerns because I don't think it was quite as good for the more advanced users so this is a little bit more of an advanced use case so we'll see how it handles it we'll see how many prompts we need and we'll see what we come up with I have my timer going here on my phone so I'll give you the final time once this app is built and we'll put it into the scorecard to see where we're at I've created a modern AI content coach application with the following features clean modern UI and dark light mode support real time chat interface okay I'm look okay all right so we have our first error so let me put in our scorecard here bolt Arrow we're at one so far all right so looks let's click try to fix problems and see how it handles the problems not a good start for bolt here not a good start for bolt okay I'll fix the missing dependencies and components we're about to hit the minute Mark here we're about a minute in Bolt so we're fixing the first error in the first minute here I take a sip of my coffee while this is going and as this is building make sure to leave a like down below if you've learned anything so far subscribe for more of the most up-to-date breaking AI news and let me know in the replies which tool you're using to code right now it is installing the dependency so it's having issues with npm install here so really basic stuff it's having issues with if I'm a non-te person and I'm trying to build here this is probably tripping me up and going what the hell is going on here why is this broken so not a good start here from bolt. New so it kind of ski past installing the dependencies it's going into everything else and and looking at all the rest of the components we'll see if it goes back here and tries to install the dependencies again but if we get tripped up here this could be a fail from bolt.

new we're in a m we're a minute and a half in here so far minute and a half in and we're still on this trouble with installing dependencies not good from bolt. new not good it's going back now and it's creating components that I thought were already created so this is uh this is interesting honestly from my perspective after using each app wind surf cursor bold. new bold.

new felt like a more prototyping app than me than actually a tool that you build full applications with it seemed like almost like a little bit more advanced of a v0 if you've ever used VZ where it just kind of builds out the prototype for you I wouldn't trust it with more advanced stuff and I think our test here is kind of backing this up so again it's having issues with the preview I'm going to do this now I'm not even click try to fix problems I'm just going to say getting this error cuz I clearly didn't understand what was going getting this getting this error here we go put that in we're now uh hitting the thre minute Mark here we're now about to hit the three minute Mark I know that's reversed on your camera but here we go so we're going back in let me fix the missing dependencies and add the required UI components will update the package okay so it's going in trying to fix it bolt. new rough start here for bolt. new for the bolt.

new team's watching this video we got some issues bolt. new team I've updated the package and required dependencies and add missing UI components application should now work without any errors all right so it's loading up here I think it's loading up I'm not seeing anything in the preview here I thought this was a pretty simple prompt for an app we put in here and looks like we're having trouble let's refresh this and we got an error okay so we are at this point uh three errors in I got three errors on the scorecard here for bolt. new uh let's put this back here oh we have 15 problems all right let's try to we'll just click try to fix problem again and we are now at the 4minute Mark with bolt.

new we're now at the 4minute Mark so it's going in it seems to be building components again I don't know why we're building components it's fixing Imports that's good it seemed like there was an import issue going on here okay here we go so we got the UI it fixed the issues that's good uh I didn't have to do any technical work so that's nice so it's still very simple easy to use I've added the missing area component create a okay so here we go um now I'll need to create a super based project and add your credentials to . lo and add my API key okay so we're going to have to go in here I'm going to need to go in the EnV file and make sure we add our superbase credentials and I'll have to add the chat GPT API as well so we're going to need the superbase URL the superbase Anon key and your API key I'm going to put this in now if you're building along with me you can go to superb base. com I think it's the best free uh database you can use for apps you're building out nextjs and then you can come in here and you can go into your project settings to get your API information for the Chad GPT API just go to platform.

open. com and then you can create an account and then create a new secret key put all that into your env. looc file will come in here I've added all the EnV variables let's move on to the next step so let's see how bolt handles this I'll help you set the superbase schema and add authentication to make the app more secure perfect okay so it's adding the schema we are now at this point after getting all the API Keys putting in and all the buildings happening 8 minutes in to bolt.

news attempts here we are three errors in and we are also six prompts in okay so let's see what we got here it's set up a schema now I need to go to superbase project and execute these SQL queries to make the necessary tables let's copy this let's go into the SQL editor let's copy that SQL in let's run it boom worked well let's see if the tables got created okay I went into superb and I set up the Google off so that is all good to go now we have authentication we have a bunch of things in here would I like to add any additional features okay let's test this out so let's try signing in Let's test this out hey are you there send let's see if this works well chatbot reply to us uh nothing happened would you like to hey are you there chatbot okay it doesn't seem to be working I send a message and I don't get anything back all right so we have an error here let's add another error we are now eight prompts into bolt. new so we have four errors eight prompts in bolt. new let's see what's going on here let me fix the chat functionality this issue might be related to open AI configuration ering let's head chat route okay we are at this point 15 minutes in we are 15 minutes in to building this app with bolt.

new try sending a message now and we got errors okay so we got another error we are now nine errors into bolt on new you know this is a more complex app than we typically do on this channel but at the same time is it the most complex app I don't think so try to fix problems looks like it has missing components that really shouldn't be a thing that an AI screws up on is missing components like it should know the agent that it was missing those components beforehand again this is kind of validating what I thought about bolt. New before which was it's a good app but it's not but but it's for prototyping it's not really for building out full apps you shouldn't be using it to build Out full Enterprise applications the positive part about bolt. new here is it has the best pricing structure of the three I'm doing this completely free you didn't really need you didn't even really need to sign in to do this you could just go and start trying this immediately which is always fun and nice cursor and wind surf do have free tiers and I'll talk about the pricing when we go to those and we'll rate pricing for each one as well uh but at the moment even at a free tier it looks like we're struggling here and we got more errors we are now seven errors in it it appears that trying to build any sort of app with both a backend an authentication and an API is just too much for bolt do bolt.

new to handle all right I decided to remove all the superbase and back in and all stuff because it just kept running into error after error after error it couldn't figure it out um so this is super simple now this goes against the the the challenge but whatever I need to get a working app here so let's see if we can handle this without any sort of complexity are you there and error couldn't be rener because it's using request. Json we're going to call it there for boldu bold. new just cannot handle a complex situation uh it cannot handle the backend it cannot handle the authentication bold.

new as I suspected is just good for prototyping it really is so let's go in here let's give the final scores here we did 11 prompts we're calling this at 22 minutes and 2 seconds 22 minutes and 2 seconds so total time 2202 we ran into nine errors 11 prompts easy use I mean if I'm a newbie and I'm trying to do this uh it's not working I got to give it I'll give it a three uh because it was very easy to run into these errors but I couldn't get the functionality built out quality of app I mean we had the uh it doesn't doesn't even look that nice I guess it looks solid it's a nice simple layout but I mean it doesn't work so I got to give it another three pricing it's free so free that's pretty nice but again as I suspected bolt. new really is just for prototyping unless you're super technical but I'm pretty Technical and it just wasn't guiding me down the path and it couldn't seem to figure out the errors is giving so there we go bolt. new next we're going to go into wind Surf and then we'll go into cursor okay okay now let's build the app in Wind surf for those who aren't familiar winds surf is probably the newest AI coding tool out there what makes it really unique and special is Cascade which is basically their AI agent this is probably the most a powerful AI agent I've ever used it takes all of the complexity away from coding and what I really liked about winds surf was it had the flexibility and customization of cursor but the agentic abilities of bolt.

new so it's kind of the best of both worlds which I really like so what we're going to do is we're run the same test we're going to use the same prompt and we're going to see what score we come up with here so let's go in here let's go into the AI agent let's put in the prompt we use with bolt. new so we got an even testing field here and let's hit enter and see what happens and also by the way we do have the timer going so we're going to see which one can do this quickly all right so I helped you create I'll help you create a modern coach and chatbot using nextjs okay let's create the nextjs project let's accept that so it writes all the commands for us so now it's installing all the tech for us we're about a minute in here so we're on a good Pace here let's see how this goes let's see if we run into any issues what's cool about bold do new is was it was an AI agent so it did a lot of things for you didn't have to put much thought in but it didn't feel as powerful didn't have as many capabilities this is the capabilities of cursor but also those AI agent abilities so I said I installed the tech through my command line you can continue so let's see what it keeps doing here great now that you have nextjs set up I'll create the necessary files and configurations for our AI content code chatbot I'll help you set up the superbase integration chat GPT API and create a beautiful UI okay so now it's going to install superbase and open AI all right so it installed the packages that's great setting up the interface components now it's building the chatbot out up to this point I haven't had to do any sort of decision making or anything myself it's just figuring it all out on its own and installing it now let's create the API route so now let's Crea the API route for the requests now let's update the main page to use our chat component at this point we are 4 minutes in 52 seconds into this now let's create the superbase database schema you'll need to run this sequel in the superbase dashboard okay let's do that so let's copy this SQL let's go into superbase over here we'll go into the SQL editor we'll paste this in we'll hit run boom okay looks like it created the tables let's see if it yep conversations profile sick okay so we're already further along with super base than we were with uh bolt update your EnV with your actual API Keys add your superbase okay so now we're going to add the super base uh Keys into here so I am going to go in and I will go into the settings of superbase and put these keys in now okay so I put all my API Keys into EnV local now I am going to run the server let's see what we get at this point by the way we are 8 minutes and 39 seconds in here okay so let's see I've created a modern AI chatbot with okay to get started make sure you add your API keys I did all right let's accept all let's pull over over the window and we got errors okay let's see your importing component needs let's take these errors let's paste it over into the AI getting this error put it over here let's open the scorecard that's an error that's an error for wind surf so let's go here so far we are two prompts in we have one error let's see what else we get here okay ah yes we need to make the chat component as a client component since using react hooks this fix it let's accept and let's pull over the app let's see what we got here okay so we do have a chatbot uh the UI not beautiful not beautiful it is rather long for some reason let's see what we got here hi are you there okay so the font's a little funky with the colors okay look we sent a message kind of looks like iOS that's kind of cool let's see if it returns a uh message from the AI okay looks like it's not R turning a message we got some errors in the console so let's put this over here looks like the AI isn't responding getting these errors paste that in let's see what it got so now we're at two errors we're at two arrs which we're still ahead at bolt at this point so let's make this two we are now at three prompts so still got some got some space here in front of Bolt let's see what happens uh the 41 A from indicates an authentication issue we need to to properly initialize suit based client the 500 error from the chat GPT API there might be an issue with the AP so it looks like there's errors with both uh superbase and chat GPT here let's fix these errors and update the superbase client it's adding proper error handling see this is one of the really cool Parts about wind surf the amount it does it kind of thinks ahead and adds more error handling and really interesting cool things like that that I really don't see from the other app we are at this point 12 minutes in so we're about halfway to where bolt was bolt was 22 minutes let's uh refresh here all right so we're running into a string of issues here hey maybe we find out from this experiment none of the tools are really that that plug-and play all right let's test this out and see what we get here all right here we go are you there enter all right still getting errors here let's send this so at this point we are six prompts in five errors I think we are starting to learn that there might not be an app out there that can just build anything from scratch we're going to go and try cursor once we get this working after we can see if cursor can Faire any better I feel like this is a pretty simple use case but maybe I'm wrong maybe this wasn't as simple as I thought all right so now we're going to try to install some more technology here I'm going to hit accept all right looks like there's actually some errors in the code here around the Imports uh I wonder if this is what's been breaking it all along I wonder if addressing these towards the beginning could have fix things let's see I'm going to fix these errors I didn't see these here which this is a knock against wind surf for sure the fact that it didn't pick up that I had these errors going I get these with every other AI coding tool I use is that it'll introduce errors and not realize it okay so look it it just and people are saying this is the downside of wind surf is that it can't link you can't link to documentation clearly it needs links to documentation here because it just does not understand how chat gpt's API works it just doesn't again really disappointing here from wind surf it is just erroring itself in circles you can't figure out the right things to import now we're okay we might just call it here this is this is is just going in circles it's just going in error circles so we are now at this point as we try to figure out this import error Circle 11 errors deep which we caught up to bolt it's trying to install more stuff all right it looks like it finally figured out how to import uh open AI into the project which again very disappointing it should be able to do this easily this shouldn't be a complex out of all the things the AI could be doing this shouldn't be the most complex thing it does all right so it just implemented a bunch of changes there's no more errors anymore so it got its way out of the error Loop we are 25 minutes in let's run the development server here all right so it's loading up let's see what we get here AI content coach start a conversation with your coach hey are you there enter it's thinking oh we got something hello I'm here to help you with your okay okay so the API is working so we got it working let's end the timer here we end the timer at 26 minutes 24 seconds listen disappointing outing by wind surf here very disappointing outing by wind surf here we end up having to go 10 prompts which is one less than bolt 11 errors which is two more than bolt and then we did this for 26 minutes and 26 seconds so we did it took 4 minutes longer I mean bolts app didn't end up working really at all uh at least wind surf ended up working uh you know if I wanted to I could probably sit here and make the UI look better in one or two prompts because the UI looks terrible uh we didn't get the super base fully implemented uh in yet that would have just took another 10 minutes probably based on what was going on here so what we're going to do is we're now going to rate it based on what we got here so e of use nonstop errors I mean I find it bolt didn't get into error Loops it just didn't give us a finished product so I'm going to have to on a scale of one to 10 if anything I I think I have to give it a couple more points in bold because at least it led to a working product uh with the same kind of difficulty so I'll give it a five for E of use quality of the app it works that's a good thing uh it's kind of ugly right the the the UI doesn't really make much sense you have to highlight to read the text is white on top of white background so if Bolt is a three for a non-working app I think I have to give this a five as well for quality of the app and then pricing is $10 a month so I guess it's not as good as Bolt bolt is free so right now it's up to you it appears wind surf is more works better than bolt uh but you have to pay for it and by the way at the end of this I'll give you my thoughts on all three of these tools based on my actual experience building Enterprise level software uh this is a very simple use case I'll tell you about how this works when I'm building my full app so wait for the end for that but that's what we have a wind surf let's go into cursor now all all right and so for the final test we're going to do cursor cursor is the most popular AI coding to on the planet so we're going to go through see if it can build upon wind Surf and bolt honestly does honestly shouldn't be too hard you know bolt really delivered us kind of a broken product that looked pretty good windsurf delivered us a work product that didn't look too great now let's see if cursor can do the Best of Both Worlds uh once we get through cursor and we see how it compares the other two I'll give you my real world experience using all three to build Enterprise level software so stick around for that as well but let's get into cursor so this is cursor it looks pretty similar to wind surf it is going to have an AI tool right here called composer which is able to do a lot of what wind surf does which is able to build files install technology do a lot of different things for us so let's take so let's take the prompt we used on the other two let's put it in here we're going to build out that AI content coach chatbot app let's hit enter and let's see what it can get for us and let's start the timer here so we got the timer going here we go how is cursor going to compare to wind surf in Bolt let's get into it here we go let's break this down to small small simple steps I'll create a nextjs app with superbase integration and open AI API first let's create a new nextjs project so I'm going to copy that as all the code is building out here so it's building out all the files for us it's building the environment it's building out the environment variables it's telling us everything we have to install here okay so let's start copying these over so downside to cursor isn't a gentic the AI isn't going and installing things for us and in handling everything we need to kind of copy these commands over so let's go in here let's accept all let's open up the terminal let's install these it's installing all the tech for us we're now a minute in here we have no errors on the tech installation which I think this is the first of the three to have that all right let's go back in what else did it have us do here install the required dependency so let's copy this let's put it into the terminal paste it so these count as prompts I'm counting these as prompts cuz we have to do the work itself here so let's add on here total prompts we're now three prompts in we have no errors which is a good thing here all right so let's see where we're at all right so it's going to continue here we've installed all the tech we are 2 minutes in we have zero errors 2 minutes in and we've installed a tech that's pretty good so it's building out the chat input the chat messages the routes it's writing all the code for us it looks like it's implementing chat GPT the correct way which that is a good first sign all right it created a basic working version the app interfaces would you like to add any specific features let's accept this and see where we're at right now okay so we have errors let's see what we got here okay so it has wrong imports from superbase uh and is not importing components correctly so let's go in here let's go back in here uh your Imports on page.