If you're a solo developer who prioritizes AI assistance and benefits from a highly integrated environment, choose Cursor. It offers superior AI-driven code completion and multi-file editing features that enhance productivity, especially for AI-first developers. However, be mindful that it is a closed-source tool and can incur costs as you scale your usage.
On the other hand, if you need high performance and real-time collaboration, Zed is the better option. It's open source, ensuring transparency and customization, and provides exceptional speed for editing tasks. This is an excellent choice for performance-sensitive developers who primarily work on macOS or Linux. Just keep in mind it's still refining its Windows support, so avoid it if you need immediate Windows compatibility or rely heavily on VS Code extensions.