Compare AI tools
Side-by-side: what they do, what they cost, what Kai actually thinks. Pass up to 4 tools via
?tools=claude,chatgpt,gemini.Pick tools (4 selected)
coding
image
productivity
writing
marketing
Cursor S | Claude Code S | Ideogram S | Recraft S | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tagline | VS Code fork that made AI coding actually work. | Anthropic's CLI agent. Opus-powered, operates on your repo directly. | The one that actually gets text in images right. | Vector + raster AI for designers. Actually controls the output. |
| Category | coding | coding | image | image |
| Pricing | Free + $20/mo Pro + $40/mo Business | Part of Claude Pro/Max/Team plans | Free + $8/mo + $20/mo + $60/mo | Free + $12-$48/mo |
| Best for | Developers. Non-developers who want to ship working code. | Developers who want an agent, not autocomplete. Large refactors, tests, docs. | Anything with text — posters, ads, album covers, slide decks. | Designers, brand teams, anyone needing vector output or tight style control. |
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| Kai's verdict | S-tier for coding. If you write code of any kind, this pays back the $20 in a day. | S-tier if you live in the terminal. Different shape than Cursor — complementary, not replacement. | S-tier for text-in-image. Use this for posters, Midjourney for art. | S-tier for designers. The only one that takes vectors seriously. |
| Link | Open → | Open → | Open → | Open → |