Side-by-side comparison to help you choose the right tool
Windsurf excels in enterprise-grade features and deep integration for maintaining developer flow, while GitHub Copilot offers broader accessibility and a more defined free tier for individual developers. The choice depends on whether an organization prioritizes advanced enterprise security and workflow continuity or individual developer productivity and accessibility.
We've analyzed Windsurf, GitHub Copilot, and dozens of other tools to find the top performers for your specific needs.
Quick recommendations based on your use case
GitHub Copilot
GitHub Copilot's broader platform support and established presence in educational settings make it a more readily available and widely adopted tool for students.
Windsurf
Windsurf's explicit mention of enterprise-grade security features like SOC2 and GDPR compliance, along with MCP support for custom tools, makes it a stronger choice for enterprises.
GitHub Copilot
GitHub Copilot offers a more clearly defined free tier with specific allowances, making it more accessible for individual freelancers starting out.
| Specification | Windsurf | GitHub Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| model | GPT 5.2, Opus 4.5, SWE-1.5 | GPT-4.1, GPT-5 mini, Claude Sonnet 4/4.5, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Claude Opus 4.1, Haiku 4.5 (varies by plan) |
| users | 1M+ | Millions of individual users and tens of thousands of business customers |
| security | Enterprise, SOC2, GDPR | Enterprise-grade controls, SOC2 (implied by GitHub's overall security posture), GDPR (implied) |
| platforms | Web, Windows, JetBrains IDEs | VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Neovim, Azure Data Studio, Eclipse, Raycast, GitHub CLI, Windows Terminal Canary, GitHub Mobile, GitHub.com |
| context window | N/A | N/A |
| gdpr compliant | ✓ Yes | N/A |
| soc2 compliant | ✓ Yes | N/A |
| enterprise features | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| free tier allowance | N/A | 50 agent mode/chat requests/mo, 2,000 completions/mo |