Replicas vs Cursor
Cursor's Cloud Agents and Replicas both run agents in isolated cloud VMs, start from Slack, Linear and GitHub, and open pull requests with screenshots and recordings. Cursor runs its own agent and bills model usage through your Cursor plan, and it is the stronger choice when your engineers live in the Cursor editor. Replicas runs Cursor alongside Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Pi and Muse Code, on your own model accounts, with per-minute compute pricing.
Checked against both vendors' docs and pricing as of November 9, 2026. This site is operated by Replicas.
Pick Replicas if
- Your team uses more than one agent, or wants Claude Code and Codex next to Cursor.
- You want model spend on your own keys or Claude and ChatGPT plans rather than a Cursor plan.
- You work in GitLab and want agents started from GitLab issues and merge requests.
- You need the whole platform self-hosted, not only the machines that run tools.
Pick Cursor if
- Your engineers pair with the agent in the Cursor editor all day and want cloud runs in the same product.
- You want one vendor and one bill for the editor, the agent and the model usage.
- Your security review needs SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 or ISO 42001 today.
Feature by feature
| Criterion | Replicas | Cursor |
|---|---|---|
| Agents | ||
| Multi-harness support | YesClaude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, Pi and Muse Code; pick the agent per task | NoThe Cursor agent with a curated set of models |
| Environment | ||
| Isolated cloud VM per task | YesEach workspace is its own isolated Linux VM (2, 4 or 8 vCPU) | YesCloud Agents run in isolated VMs with full development environments |
| Workflow | ||
| Pull request output | YesThe agent opens the pull request (GitHub) or merge request (GitLab) | YesCloud Agents push a branch and open pull requests with screenshots, videos and logs |
| Local IDE workflow | NoAgents run only in the cloud; the desktop app and CLI connect to cloud workspaces and can open one in VS Code | YesThe Cursor editor and CLI |
| Where work starts | ||
| Start from Slack | YesMentions, DMs and threads | Yes@cursor in Slack |
| Start from Linear | YesAssign or mention on an issue | Yes@cursor in Linear |
| Start from GitHub | YesMention on issues and PRs; can act on failed checks and reviews | Yes@cursor on a GitHub PR or issue |
| Start from GitLab | YesIssues and merge requests; one workspace can span GitHub and GitLab | PartlyWorks on GitLab repositories; @cursor comments are documented for GitHub and Bitbucket |
| Models and billing | ||
| Bring your own model keys | YesAnthropic, OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Microsoft Foundry, OpenRouter, Cursor and OpenAI-compatible keys | NoCloud Agents bill your Cursor plan's usage at model rates |
| Use your Claude or ChatGPT plan | YesClaude and ChatGPT subscriptions | NoUses Cursor's own plans |
| Usage-based compute pricing | YesBilled per workspace minute by VM size; sleeping and archived workspaces cost nothing; seats are free | PartlyPlan usage at model rates; Cloud Agents need a Premium, Teams or Enterprise plan |
| Security and governance | ||
| SOC 2 report | YesSOC 2 Type I | YesSOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and ISO 42001 |
| SOC 2 Type II today | NoSOC 2 Type II is in progress | YesSOC 2 Type II attestation |
| SCIM provisioning | YesSCIM provisioning on Enterprise | YesSSO and SCIM |
| Audit log | YesAudit log of every configuration change | YesCompliance and audit logs on Enterprise |
| Self-hosted or dedicated deployment | YesSelf-hosted or dedicated single-tenant deployment on Enterprise | PartlySelf-hosted machines for tool execution; the service itself is Cursor-hosted |
| Scale | ||
| Parallel runs | YesRun many workspaces at once and compare them side by side | YesAs many Cloud Agents in parallel as you want |
| Scheduled and event-driven runs | YesSchedules and GitHub, GitLab, Slack, Sentry and webhook events | YesCloud Agent automations |
Sources: Replicas facts, Replicas pricing, Replicas enterprise, Replicas docs, Cursor Cloud Agents docs, Cursor security, Cursor pricing.
Still deciding?
The comparison above is the same for everyone. The chooser weights it by your team size, the agents you use, where work starts, how you pay for models and what your security review needs, and tells you which of the two, or something else, fits.
Take the chooserCommon questions
Can Replicas run the Cursor agent?
Yes. Cursor is one of the agents Replicas runs, using a Cursor API key, so a team can keep Cursor and add Claude Code or Codex for other tasks.
Do Cursor Cloud Agents need a particular plan?
Cursor's docs say Cloud Agents need Premium or higher, Teams, Enterprise or a legacy paid plan, and they use your plan's usage at the selected model's rate.
Get a second opinion on your shortlist
Tell us what you're weighing and an engineer from the Replicas team, who operate this site, will reply by email. We'll point you to whichever option fits, including when that isn't Replicas.