CircleCI vs Windsurf
Fast, configurable CI/CD with Docker, ARM, GPU runners and orbs
vs. Agentic IDE (formerly Codeium) — Cascade AI flow + SWE-1.5 model
Pricing tiers
CircleCI
Free
$0. 6,000 build minutes/mo (Linux medium). 30 users. Unlimited projects.
Free
Performance
$15/mo (3 users). Credit-based: 80K-240K credits/mo bundles. More concurrency.
$15/mo
Scale
$2,000/mo+ (custom). High concurrency, self-hosted runner support, SSO.
$2000/mo
CircleCI Server
Custom. On-prem deployment of CircleCI. Enterprise only.
Custom
Windsurf
Free
Daily + weekly refresh of basic quota. Includes SWE-1.5 + Cascade (limited) + Tab.
Free
Light
Unlimited with daily + weekly refresh. Free higher quota tier.
$0 base (usage-based)
Pro
$20/month. All premium models. Fast Context. Usage billed at API price.
$20/mo
Teams
$40/user/month. Team + admin dashboard + RBAC.
$40/mo
Max
$200/month. Unlimited + all features.
$200/mo
Enterprise
Custom. Unlimited + SSO + SOC 2 + on-prem option.
Custom
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing free on CircleCI vs free on Windsurf.
| Metric | CircleCI | Windsurf |
|---|---|---|
| No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers. | ||
Features
CircleCI · 17 features
- ARM + GPU Runners — ARM64 + T4 GPU resource classes.
- .circleci/config.yml — Single source of truth (YAML 2.1).
- Contexts — Org-scoped shared env vars.
- Deploy Markers — Track deployments + rollback.
- Docker Layer Caching — Reuse Docker layers.
- Dynamic Config — Generate config based on changed paths.
- Manual Approval — Gate workflows with manual step.
- Matrix Jobs — Parameterized parallel jobs.
- Orbs — Packaged reusable jobs + commands.
- Parallelism — Split a job across N parallel containers.
- Rerun with SSH — SSH into failed job.
- Restricted Contexts — RBAC for secrets.
- Scheduled Pipelines — Cron-triggered runs.
- Self-Hosted Runners — On your infra.
- Test Insights — Flaky test detection + trends.
- Test Splitting — By timings, filenames, classnames.
- Workflows (DAG) — Fan out, fan in, conditional.
Windsurf · 13 features
- Bring Your Own Key — Use your OpenAI/Anthropic/Azure keys to bypass quotas.
- Cascade — AI agent flow with read/write tool use across files.
- Chat Panel — Sidebar chat with codebase context.
- Command (inline edit) — Ctrl/Cmd+I → natural language edits.
- Deploys — One-click deployment to Netlify + custom targets.
- Fast Context — Optimized context retrieval engine for codebase queries.
- Image Input — Drag screenshots into chat for context.
- MCP Support — Hook MCP servers for extended tools.
- Memories — Persistent notes Cascade can refer to.
- Previews — Live preview pane inside IDE for web apps.
- Tab Completions — Next-edit + inline completions, multi-cursor aware.
- Terminal Integration — Cascade reads + writes terminal. Confirms risky ops.
- .windsurfrules — Project-level system prompts.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | CircleCI | Windsurf |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | circleci CLI | Windsurf CLI |
| REST | CircleCI REST API v2 | — |
| MCP | — | MCP Support |
| OTHER | .circleci/config.yml, CircleCI Orbs Registry, CircleCI Webhooks, CircleCI Web UI, Self-Hosted Runner | JetBrains / Xcode / Eclipse / Neovim Plugins, Windsurf Desktop App, .windsurfrules |
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Outbound links to CircleCI and Windsurf are plain references to their official websites. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.
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