Cursor alternatives for Mac
Cursor — Write, edit, and chat about your code with AI — is installed 6,983 times a month through Homebrew. These are hand-picked alternatives that occupy the same slot, ordered by how comparable their user base is.
Run
brew install --cask cursor to install Cursor itself.- Microsoft Visual Studio Code5.2× the installs
- Zed8,832 installs/mo
- BoltAI 2179.1× smaller user base
- Jan19.3× smaller user base
- Sublime Text5,224 installs/mo
- Diffusion Bee61.8× smaller user base
- DBeaver Community Edition9,866 installs/mo
- Fork8.4× smaller user base
Full comparison
| Cursor | Microsoft Visual Studio Code | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | GUI app | GUI app |
| Category | Developer Tools | Developer Tools |
| Open source | Not declared | Not declared |
| Licence | Not declared | Not declared |
| Apple silicon | Universal | Universal |
| Latest version | 3.27.14,69b724ebc67ec522c1b5d287a5025f7a7e81be97 | 1.143.1 |
| Dependencies | 0 | 0 |
| Installs (30 days) | 6,983 | 36,536 |
| Install command | brew install --cask cursor | brew install --cask visual-studio-code |
How we picked these
The list comes from a hand-maintained set of same-purpose apps, not from keyword matching. Alternatives are removed automatically when Homebrew no longer carries them. Ordering reflects 30-day install volume, not paid placement. Data updated 2026-10-26.