Problems with Cursor.ai
After ChatGPT, the only other AI product making quite some waves on the internet for a very long time is Cursor.ai.
Everyone, including Andrej Karpathy, the OG scientist, hails Cursor.ai. So, under some tremendous peer pressure, I also tried my hands at Cursor.ai, and just couldn’t connect with it. I tried a few POCs but nothing more
https://medium.com/media/36600513a8e57d4cd2a1466d44ce84d5/href
Good for POCs, Bad for real-world, complex projects
Though the product is great, when I tried using it for some real-world projects to make something more than a calculator, it failed badly.
Any dev would prefer writing his/her own code than reading someone else codes
I don’t want to clean up AI-generated codes. Sorry !!
When I first tried using Cursor.ai for a project at my organization, I was optimistic. I thought it might help me save time on boilerplate code or repetitive tasks.
However, as the project grew in complexity, the tool started to struggle. The AI suggestions became less accurate, often generating code that was either irrelevant or outright incorrect.
In a real-world project, where every line of code has to be precise and optimized, this kind of unpredictability is a dealbreaker.
A project which should have taken 2 weeks, took me a month
For example, when working on a microservices architecture with multiple interconnected components, Cursor.ai failed to understand the context of the codebase. It would suggest functions or variables that didn’t align with the existing architecture, leading to more confusion than clarity. In such scenarios, the time spent correcting or ignoring these suggestions outweighed any potential benefits.
Cursor is now free
While most LLMs are open-sourced now, paying for Cursor.ai doesn’t make sense to me. VS Code extension like Cline can do the same job, for free.
Open-source alternatives are present, so why pay?
Performance Issues
Despite its AI capabilities, Cursor.ai can be surprisingly slow, especially when working with larger codebases. The editor sometimes lags or freezes, which can be incredibly frustrating when you’re in the middle of a coding session. Performance is critical for any development tool, and Cursor.ai often falls short in this area.
Limited Language Support
While Cursor.ai supports several popular programming languages, its support is not as comprehensive as other code editors like Visual Studio Code or JetBrains IDEs. If you’re working with less common languages or frameworks, you might find that Cursor.ai doesn’t offer the same level of assistance, making it less useful for a wide range of projects.
Privacy Concerns
Cursor.ai requires access to your code to provide its AI-driven suggestions. While the company claims to prioritize user privacy, the idea of sending your code to a third-party server can be unsettling for many developers, especially those working on sensitive or proprietary projects. This lack of transparency around data handling is a significant red flag.
You might not be able to use it in corporate environment
Steep Learning Curve
While Cursor.ai aims to simplify coding, it introduces a steep learning curve. The AI features and unique interface can be confusing for developers who are used to more traditional code editors. This can lead to a longer onboarding process and a slower adoption rate within teams.
Lack of community support
One of the strengths of popular code editors like Visual Studio Code is their extensive ecosystems of plugins and extensions. Cursor.ai, on the other hand, has a much smaller community and fewer third-party integrations. This limits its versatility and makes it harder to extend the editor’s functionality to meet your specific needs.
Concluding,
Cursor.ai might be great for quick POCs, but for real-world, complex projects, it just doesn’t cut it. The AI struggles with context, slows down performance, and introduces more issues than it solves. Add privacy concerns, a steep learning curve, and a questionable price-to-value ratio, and it’s clear why I don’t use it. Fun to experiment with? Maybe. A serious development tool? Not for me!
Why I don’t use Cursor.ai? was originally published in Data Science in your pocket on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
