Bolt, v0, and Cursor: A Comprehensive Comparison and Selection Guide for Three AI Tools

I've found that many people have trouble understanding the difference between Bolt, v0, and Cursor et al. (and other authors) AI IDE The difference between the tools is confusing.

Since I've been using them for a few months now (and subscribed to the service), I'll summarize their key points here.

The full text is as follows: 🧵

Bolt

Bolt It's an excellent tool and I've been using it since day one. It allows you to quickly build your own specification documents in GPT/Claude and send them to Bolt. it produces very high quality results. In addition, the Bolt development team has been very quick to add new features and optimizations.

If you need to start multiple projects frequently, such as doing demos or building multiple apps per month, then Bolt is a worthwhile tool.

However, if you're working with an existing codebase, be aware that Bolt is currently primarily a code generator. In some cases, you may encounter its limitations.

They've added useful features like "Lock" and "Target File", but if you're writing code for 8 hours a day, you might want to take it a step further in terms of consistency to make sure the process is smoother.

In addition, the Bolt and v0 are in React framework outperforms other frameworks such as Nuxt/Vue. I tested the same application over and over again and found that it always ran into problems with Nuxt. Therefore, Vue/Nuxt support is still not good enough, which is a common problem with most code generators.

v0.dev

A few days ago, I would have said that v0.dev is stronger at building the front end (i.e., the interface users see when they open an app or website) compared to Bolt.

This seems to be because they rely heavily on shadcn, a very popular framework-independent component design library. Focusing on this framework allows for a nice UI to be consistently implemented.

Since v0 announced full-stack features a few days ago, including access to grep (meaning a database of over 500,000 GitHub repositories), it will be functionally similar to Bolt.

Cursor

First of all, Cursor is a programming IDE (it's a branch of Visual Studio), not an all-in-one browser-based code generator.

Learning to program an IDE is very different from learning software like Blender or Adobe Photoshop. For example, if you learn Blender, you'll spend months creating 3D renderings. Not only will you become proficient with the tool, but you'll be able to create stunning 3D scenes.

The problem is that you have mastered the tool (the cursor), but you still don't know how to write code. This is the cause of frustration for people with no programming knowledge.

On the other hand, if you're an experienced developer, the cursor will be the main tool you'll use. Although, as I said, you can quickly start a project in v0 and Bolt, but eventually you will get to the cursor.

With the cursor, you can add your own codebase, such as adding Nuxt UI or any specific framework. You can add extensions, use file references, etc.

Summary:

Think of it this way: Bolt and v0 are like Canva. it's for everyone, it gets results fast, but it's not very customizable.

This is great - especially for beginners or certain specific usage scenarios.

And Cursor is like Figma, a highly customizable and extensible design tool, especially for developers.

While it may seem like Bolt and v0 are great for beginners, you need to learn to program them! They are like slot machines that give you a quick jackpot and dopamine rush in the beginning.

Then, with a crash, you get stuck, and every step feels like someone has dropped a boulder in your path.

Additionally, there are many layers to consider when you're building a prototype. It's not just about building shiny user interfaces and some logic. You also have to deal with connecting all the components together, using APIs, backend, frontend, and database.