Cursor AI, v0, and Bolt.new: An Honest Comparison of Today’s AI Coding Tools

AI-powered coding tools are evolving rapidly, each new release promising to transform our development processes. These tools aim to boost productivity through intelligent code suggestions, automation of repetitive tasks, and even generation of entire code snippets from natural language prompts. Last week, StackBlitz launched Bolt.new, adding to the growing ecosystem of AI coding assistants and instantly capturing the attention of developers worldwide. Within days, the internet was flooded with articles and videos proclaiming Bolt.new as the “Cursor & v0 killer.”

I’ve been using Cursor AI editor and v0 by Vercel for my work on Vyce, and I immediately incorporated Bolt.new into my workflow upon its release. From this first-hand experience, I can tell you that the reality of these tools is more nuanced than the sensational headlines suggest.

This article provides a no-nonsense comparison based on my hands-on experience with these tools. I’ll break down the strengths and limitations of each tool, showing you when and why you’d choose one over the others.

The aim is to provide a clear, balanced overview of how Cursor, v0, and Bolt.new can be effectively integrated into modern development workflows.

Cursor: The AI-Enhanced Code Editor

Cursor AI is a fork of Visual Studio Code that integrates advanced AI capabilities. In my experience, it offers the best AI-assisted coding experience available today, surpassing competitors like GitHub Copilot in speed, accuracy, and user experience.

Key features that set Cursor apart include:

• Intelligent and fast code completion: Cursor’s autocomplete function goes beyond traditional tools. It suggests multi-line edits and predicts your next changes based on recent modifications, significantly speeding up coding. Often, Cursor suggested changes faster than I could manually navigate to the next point in the code.
• Comprehensive code suggestions: Unlike traditional autocomplete tools, Cursor offers intelligent suggestions at the beginning, middle, and end of lines.
• Multi-file editing: Cursor can create and modify multiple files simultaneously, streamlining complex refactoring tasks.
• Integrated documentation: It indexes documentation for popular libraries, allowing you to include this context in your prompts.
• Context-Aware Chat: Using @Codebase or ⌘ Enter, you can ask questions about your entire codebase. Cursor searches your project to provide relevant answers, which is invaluable for understanding large codebases. As it also has documentation for popular libraries indexed, make the answer much more accurate than vanilla LLM’s, which might have been trained with data that include older versions of the library documentation.
• Diff view for changes: Cursor shows a diff view before applying AI-suggested changes, allowing you to accept modifications block by block or all at once.
• Terminal Commands in Plain English: In the terminal, you can use ⌘ K to write commands in plain English, which Cursor then converts to the appropriate terminal command.

These features create a seamless, AI-enhanced coding environment that significantly boosts your productivity without sacrificing your control over the codebase.

v0 by Vercel: AI-Powered Prototyping

v0 is Vercel’s AI-powered tool designed for rapid UI prototyping. In my experience working on Vyce, v0 has significantly accelerated the development process, allowing for quick iteration and experimentation with UI components. Here’s what stands out:

• Enhanced Prototyping Workflow: v0 enables you to quickly generate and visualize the initial look and feel of a component. It allows side-by-side code generation and preview, much like tools like Claude artifacts or ChatGPT Canvas, but takes it a step further by integrating NPM packages. This integration facilitates the use of UI frameworks and libraries, such as Material-UI (MUI), to build prototypes faster and with less code.
• Component-Focused Approach: While v0 doesn’t handle data fetching or backend logic, it excels at creating individual, reusable components. This focus aligns well with modern React development practices and is ideal for UI ideation and initial component structuring.
• Integration with UI Frameworks: The ability to incorporate NPM packages means you can leverage popular UI frameworks and libraries within your prototypes. In my work on Vyce, this feature has been invaluable for rapidly prototyping new components using MUI.
• Code Portability: v0 generates copy-paste friendly code, allowing you to easily integrate it into existing projects. Once satisfied with a prototype in v0, you can move the code to a full-fledged editor for integration and polishing. This seamless transition from v0 to our main codebase streamlines the development workflow.

When building Vyce, we used v0 to prototype new components. The workflow typically involves using v0 to quickly generate and visualize the initial look and feel of a component. Once satisfied with the prototype, I transfer the code to Cursor for integration and polishing.

This approach significantly accelerates the prototyping phase of development, allowing for rapid iteration and experimentation with UI components.

Bolt.new: Full-Stack Prototyping in the Browser

Bolt.new takes v0’s concept to the next level, offering a full-stack development environment in your browser. Instead of being limited to a single file with preview, Bolt.new allows you to create and modify entire projects, complete with dependencies and configurations. You can deploy these projects directly on the StackBlitz platform, streamlining the process from development to production.

• Complete Development Environment: Unlike v0, Bolt.new provides a full-stack setup, including npm package installation, Node.js servers, and the ability to interact with third-party APIs. This allowed me to prototype entire applications, not just UI components.
• WebContainer Technology: Built on StackBlitz’s WebContainers, Bolt.new runs a complete Node.js environment in the browser. This eliminates the need for local setup, which can be a significant time-saver.
• AI with Environment Control: The AI in Bolt.new has control over the entire development environment, including the filesystem and terminal. I’ve found this particularly useful for troubleshooting and environment setup tasks. One of the most impressive features of Bolt.new is its one-click error fixing. When you encounter an error, you can let the AI attempt to fix it automatically, eliminating the need for manual copy-pasting of solutions.
• Deployment Capabilities: Bolt.new allows for deployment directly from the chat interface, streamlining the process from development to production. It’s also possible to share work in progress by URL.

At first glance, Bolt.new seems to offer significantly more than v0, leading some to label it a “v0 killer.” Indeed, its capabilities are impressive, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Vercel, also being a hosting provider, develop similar functionality in the future.

Limitations and Considerations

Despite its impressive features, Bolt.new is not without limitations:

1. Code Regeneration: With each iteration, Bolt.new regenerates the entire file from scratch, even for minor changes. This can lead to unintended modifications and occasionally results in omitted code, similar to issues seen with ChatGPT and Claude.
2. Lack of Versioning: I discovered this limitation the hard way when I lost 1–2 hours of fine-tuning work during a debugging session. The AI-generated code overwrote my carefully crafted changes without any way to recover them.
3. No Diff View: Unlike Cursor, Bolt.new doesn’t offer a diff view before applying changes, reducing control over code modifications.

While powerful, these limitations reveal why Bolt.new complements, rather than replaces, tools like Cursor. They serve different purposes in the development workflow.

In my experience, Bolt.new excels for rapid prototyping of full-stack features, especially when testing ideas that involve both frontend and backend components without setting up a local environment. Its combination of a complete development environment, AI assistance, and collaborative tools makes it a powerful asset for developers looking to streamline their workflow.

Pricing

Bolt.new, v0, and Cursor AI all offer free tiers to help users get started, but they differ in their pricing focus as they scale up. Bolt.new and Cursor AI both provide affordable individual plans and higher-cost options for teams or businesses, while v0 stands out with a credit-based system that allows for flexibility in resource consumption. All three tools aim to cater to both individual developers and teams, but their approaches to usage limits and customization vary.

Cursor

• Hobby: Free, limited completions
• Pro ($20/month): Unlimited completions, premium requests
• Business ($40/user/month): Privacy mode, team management tools

v0

• Free: Basic access, 200 credits
• Premium ($20/month): Increased limits, custom features, 5000 credits

Bolt.new

• Free: Limited access, Sonnet 3.5 with 200K context
• Pro ($9/month): 10M tokens, API access
• Teams ($29/member/month): 10M tokens, team features, support

Conclusion

Cursor, v0, and Bolt.new each bring their own unique strengths to the table:

• Cursor AI remains the go-to tool for day-to-day coding tasks, offering an unparalleled AI-assisted experience within a familiar code editor environment.
• v0 excels in rapid UI prototyping, particularly when working with popular frameworks and libraries.
• Bolt.new shines in full-stack prototyping and quick project setups, though it’s currently limited to that role due to its constraints.

While Bolt.new offers impressive capabilities that may make it a strong competitor to v0 in the prototyping space, it’s not accurate to call it a “Cursor killer.” These tools serve different purposes and stages in the development process. Cursor remains the tool of choice for serious, production-level development work.

The AI-powered dev tool landscape is rapidly evolving, with each tool carving out its niche in the modern development workflow. The key for developers is to understand the strengths and limitations of each tool and leverage them appropriately in their workflows.

For a deeper dive into AI-powered development tools, including discussions on Cursor, v0, Continue.dev, and Ollama, check out my recent appearance on the Map for Engineers podcast. You can find the full episode (Ep. 3) on YouTube or in your podcast app (search for “Map for Engineers).

Have you used any of these AI coding assistants? I’d love to hear about your experiences and how they’ve impacted your development workflow. Share your thoughts in the comments below or in HackerNews thread.