Windsurf vs Amazon Q Developer
Zero of fourteen models named Windsurf first on the direct prompt; zero named Amazon Q Developer. Windsurf was named by thirteen of the fourteen models and Amazon Q Developer by thirteen and Windsurf carries 34 labels and Amazon Q Developer 38, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in one category this edition.
Named in two categories this edition.
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the AI coding assistants page.
By framing
WindsurfFirst choices, of fourteen modelsAmazon Q Developer
Across every category in the October 2026 Edition, Windsurf and Amazon Q Developer were named in the same answer forty-six times, of the 97 answers naming Windsurf and the 112 naming Amazon Q Developer. In those answers Amazon Q Developer took the first choice one time and Windsurf eight.
Every model, every framing
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | | | ||||
| GPT-5.4 mini | | |||||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | |||
| Perplexity Sonar | | | ||||
| Grok 4.1 Fast | | | | | | |
| Mistral Small | | | | |||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | | | | ||
| Llama 4 Maverick | | |||||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | | | | |||
| Kimi K2 | | | | | | |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | ||||
| MiniMax M2.5 | | | | |||
| GPT-6 Luna | | | ||||
| Muse Glimmer 30B | | | | | |
Windsurf Amazon Q Developer first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Windsurf on the left and Amazon Q Developer on the right.The direct prompt
Neither was the first choice, one was named
6 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Neither was named
8 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
Windsurf19%#2 of 7Amazon Q Developer0%#6 of 7Windsurf14%#2 of 9Amazon Q Developer4%#4 of 9Amazon Q Developer7%#3 of 9Windsurf0%#7 of 9What the models said about Windsurf
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.
“Cursor, Replit, Windsurf, OpenAI Codex. Named in the 43.1% unauthorized file operations taxonomy” Muse Glimmer 30B · negative prompt · soft negative
“Augment and Windsurf did not issue swift fixes, leaving their users temporarily exposed.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“Augment and Windsurf had not provided a fix update at the time of publication” GPT-6 Luna · negative prompt · soft negative
“Codeium – best free unlimited usage ... Zero budget / proof of concept: Codeium free unlimited + Amazon Q Developer free tier” Muse Glimmer 30B · budget prompt · first choice
“The best AI coding assistant for a company with a limited budget is Windsurf, which is priced at $15/month.” Llama 4 Maverick · budget prompt · first choice
“The Top Pick for $0 Budget: Codeium ... is the strongest option for a budget-conscious team” Qwen 3.7 Flash · budget prompt · first choice
What the models said about Amazon Q Developer
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.
“Lower Priority/Avoid if Possible: Amazon Q Developer ... End-of-support looming ... migrate from Amazon soon” Grok 4.1 Fast · negative prompt · hard negative
“extracted 2,702 valid credentials from GitHub Copilot and 129 from Amazon CodeWhisperer using clever prompts” Muse Glimmer 30B · negative prompt · soft negative
“Ranked second lowest at 72.38 in the privacy scorecard. Also flagged in credential extraction research.” Muse Glimmer 30B · negative prompt · soft negative
“"For budget-conscious teams, Continue.dev and Amazon Q Developer offer excellent value."” Muse Glimmer 30B · budget prompt · first choice
“I'd start with Amazon CodeWhisperer or Tabnine since they're free” MiniMax M2.5 · budget prompt · first choice
“| Amazon Q Developer (ex-CodeWhisperer) | Yes (generous for individuals/AWS) | $19/mo Pro | AWS-heavy teams” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · alternative
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.