Compare AI tools

	Claude Code S	Elicit S	Recraft S	Windsurf A
Tagline	Anthropic's CLI agent. Opus-powered, operates on your repo directly.	AI research assistant for academic literature.	Vector + raster AI for designers. Actually controls the output.	Codeium's agentic IDE. Cascade agent + strong free tier.
Category	Coding	Research	Image	Coding
Pricing	Part of Claude Pro/Max/Team plans	Free + $12-$42/mo	Free + $12-$48/mo	Free + $15/mo Pro
Best for	Developers who want an agent, not autocomplete. Large refactors, tests, docs.	Grad students, researchers, anyone doing literature reviews.	Designers, brand teams, anyone needing vector output or tight style control.	Developers who want Cursor-like power for less money.
Strengths	Runs locally, edits your actual files Strong on large codebases with 1M context Great at multi-step tasks	Searches 125M+ papers Extracts + synthesizes findings across papers Systematic review workflow	Exports SVG vectors — rare in AI image gen Strong style control + consistency Brand kit for consistent outputs	Cheaper than Cursor Cascade agent for multi-file tasks Solid free tier
Weaknesses	Terminal-based — learning curve Can't be used without Claude subscription	Academic-only Can hallucinate citations — verify everything	Less hyped than Midjourney Learning curve for non-designers	Smaller community Model selection more limited
Kai's verdict	S-tier if you live in the terminal. Different shape than Cursor — complementary, not replacement.	S-tier for academic research. Nothing else comes close for systematic reviews.	S-tier for designers. The only one that takes vectors seriously.	A-tier. Close second to Cursor. If $5/mo matters, start here.
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