The landscape of integrated development environments (IDEs) for web development in 2025 is defined by rapid innovation, the dominance of AI-powered coding assistants, and fierce competition between established players and new entrants. This report provides a comprehensive overview of the current market, adoption trends, key features, pricing models, user preferences, security considerations, and future growth projections.
Visual Studio Code (VS Code) remains the most widely used IDE among web developers, maintaining a user base of over 40 million developers globally as of early 2025. Its enduring popularity is attributed to its extensibility, robust ecosystem, and seamless integration with AI tools like GitHub Copilot. However, the market has seen significant disruption from AI-first IDEs such as Cursor and Windsurf (formerly Codeium), and new cloud-based solutions like Google’s Firebase Studio[1][2][3].
According to recent data, the IDE and text editor market is fragmented, with the following estimated market share percentages as of 2025:
It is important to note that these figures encompass both general-purpose IDEs and text editors, not exclusively web development tools. VS Code, despite being fourth in overall market share, remains the top choice for web development specifically[4][5].
VS Code continues to set the standard for extensibility, cross-platform support, and integration with a vast array of web frameworks and languages. Its AI capabilities are supercharged by GitHub Copilot, which recently evolved into a fully autonomous coding agent capable of executing entire development tasks, fixing bugs, and managing workflows with minimal human intervention[6][7][8].
Cursor is an AI-first IDE forked from VS Code, focusing on deep AI integration and agentic workflows. It is known for advanced inline editing, context-aware code generation, and strong support for modern web frameworks. Cursor’s popularity is bolstered by significant funding and rapid feature updates, though it faces challenges due to Microsoft’s recent restriction of access to the official VS Code extensions marketplace[9][10].
Windsurf, formerly known as Codeium, has emerged as a leading AI coding IDE. Its core features include the Cascade AI engine for codebase analysis, Supercomplete for advanced autocompletion, and AI Flows for monitoring and automating coding tasks. Windsurf is designed for large-scale, collaborative projects and emphasizes structured, context-aware code support. In May 2025, OpenAI acquired Windsurf for $3 billion, signaling the strategic importance of AI-assisted development environments[11][2].