GILD verdict
Choose GitHub Copilot when your work already runs through GitHub and engineers should keep their editors.
Choose Devin Desktop when you want a dedicated editor that runs and tracks several agents, and you accept Enterprise pricing for SSO. Pilot either on accepted, reviewed changes and compare spend at the plan you would buy.
Copilot is the lower-cost default, because it adds chat, agent mode, and a cloud agent to the editors and GitHub workflow a team already uses. Devin Desktop, formerly Windsurf, asks engineers to adopt Cognition's editor. It repays the switch when engineers will run local agents and Devin cloud sessions from that one place.
What teams report
Left or turned down 2
IndeedOn GitHub Copilot
In the talk DX published in June 2026, Indeed said it had retired GitHub Copilot and Sourcegraph Cody once their weekly use had fallen to about 3%; its engineers moved to agents, Windsurf among them.
“And then we actually have phased out Cody and Copilot. So sort of that first generation of tools we’ve actually already fully retired. Our usage when we actually did retire them was down to about 3% of people. So our users actually abandoned them before we did.”
Michael Redding, Principal Product Manager, IndeedDX Engineering Enablement podcast, , episode DisneyOn GitHub Copilot
Business Insider reported on Jul 29, 2026 that Disney plans to drop GitHub Copilot for US staff; separately, eight Disney tech employees told the publication they rarely or never used it.
“Eight Disney tech employees told Business Insider that they rarely or never used GitHub Copilot.”
James Faris, Reporter, Business Insiderbusinessinsider.com, , reportSecond-hand, as businessinsider.com reported it
Switched 1
ServiceNow
The New Stack reported on Oct 17, 2025 that ServiceNow, a GitHub Copilot shop with decent results, evaluated newer tools and switched about 7,000 engineers to Windsurf (Devin Desktop since June 2026), measuring about a 10% gain in stories per engineer across the release boundary.
“ServiceNow saw about a 10% increase in productivity as measured by stories per unit time per engineer between the last release before the team started using Windsurf and the first one after the tool was introduced.”
Pat Casey, CTO and co-founderThe New Stack, , reportSecond-hand, as The New Stack reported it
Run both 1
Monzo
Monzo started with GitHub Copilot through VS Code and has been trying Windsurf, Cursor and Claude Code beside it while continuing to invest in Copilot, The Pragmatic Engineer reported on Sep 16, 2025.
“Since then, we’ve been trying Cursor, Windsurf, and Claude Code, and we continue to invest in Copilot”.”
Suhail Patel, Leads the platform teamsThe Pragmatic Engineer, , reportSecond-hand, as The Pragmatic Engineer reported it
Choosing between Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) and GitHub Copilot
Choose Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) if
- Engineers are willing to switch editors to get local agents and a board for tracking them.
- You want third-party agents such as Codex CLI or Claude Agent running inside the same editor.
- You are on Enterprise and want repositories indexed remotely, which the docs offer only in the Devin Desktop plugins on Enterprise plans.
Choose GitHub Copilot if
- Engineers want to stay in VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Eclipse, or Xcode.
- Your code lives on GitHub and you want an agent that starts from an issue and returns a pull request.
- You want organization license and policy management on Copilot Business at US$19 per granted seat per month.
Side by side
| Dimension | Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) | GitHub Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Its own desktop editor for macOS, Windows, and Linux | Agent mode in VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Eclipse, and Xcode, plus Copilot CLI and GitHub.com |
| Individual priceList prices in US dollars. Included usage differs by plan and is not directly comparable. | Pro: US$20 per month | Pro: US$10 per month |
| Team price | Teams: US$40 per month per full seat, with a US$80 monthly minimum | Business: US$19 per granted seat per month; Enterprise: US$39 |
| Beyond the plan | Extra usage at API list prices once the daily or weekly quota runs out | Usage beyond the pooled AI credits at US$0.01 per credit, when admins allow paid usage |
| Cloud delegation | Devin cloud sessions on their own VMs, tracked in the Agent Command Center | Copilot cloud agent works in an ephemeral cloud environment and can open a pull request |
| Team controls | Team settings for models, MCP, and agent permissions on Teams and Enterprise; SSO, SCIM, and role-based access on Enterprise | Organization and enterprise policies for features and models on Business and Enterprise |
| Cloud pull requests merged (MSR 2026 study)Public GitHub repositories with at least 100 stars. In the 11 weeks both agents shared, reviewers merged 68.0% of each. | Devin cloud sessions: 61.6% of 2,252 over 32 weeks from December 2024; Devin Local is outside the study13 | Copilot cloud agent: 68.0% of 2,194 over 11 weeks from May 202513 |
What practitioners report, side by side
Each product's figures come from its own practitioners, for the group you pick.
Overall signal
Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) reads +17 and GitHub Copilot +18, each from its own practitioners. Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf): 28 positive, 15 negative of 67. GitHub Copilot: 19 positive, 10 negative of 49.
The score counts the authors from all practitioners that take a side, one vote each with their latest view, and is how far positive votes lead negative ones, per 100 votes, so Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf)'s +17 rests on votes split 26 positive, 22 mixed and 15 negative.
Each of GitHub Copilot's authors wrote one source here, so each source is one vote. A lead of a fifth of the votes reads positive and a lead of half strong positive, with the same lines below zero. The dots show each source, positive, mixed, negative. Use a task pilot to measure accepted work and review time.
Footprint on the Agentic Software Development stack
They differ on four of 12 layers. Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) owns one that GitHub Copilot does not, and GitHub Copilot owns one that Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) does not. Coverage is each product's placement on this stack, as its product page shows it. Core is a job the product owns; Supports and Touches are jobs it helps with. Coverage says nothing about how well a product does them.
| Layer | Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) | GitHub Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Build | ||
| Codebase context | Core | Supports |
| Validate | ||
| Code review | Supports | Core |
| Application security | Touches | Supports |
| Ship | ||
| Source control | Touches | Supports |
The 8 layers where they match
| Layer | Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) | GitHub Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | ||
| Work planning | Supports | Supports |
| Build | ||
| Coding | Core | Core |
| Agent runtime | Core | Core |
| Tool execution | Supports | Supports |
| Validate | ||
| Debugging | Supports | Supports |
| Testing | Supports | Supports |
| Ship | ||
| CI/CD | Touches | Touches |
| Operate | ||
| Observability | Touches | Touches |
What practitioners praise
Among all practitioners, GitHub Copilot alone has five praise themes that reach 5 sources from 3 authors. Inline Completions and GitHub Integration lead, at 9 of 10 and 9 of 11. Of the two themes both carry, Agent Execution differs most. It is praised in 12 of the 13 Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) sources that discuss it, against 7 of 15 for GitHub Copilot. Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) alone has three praise themes that reach 5 sources from 3 authors. Codebase Context and Editor Experience lead, at 15 of 17 and 10 of 14.
| Praised for | Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) | GitHub Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Agent Execution | 12 of 13 | 7 of 15 |
| Value for Money | 5 of 8 | 5 of 9 |
| Codebase Context | 15 of 17 | Not a theme in its sources |
| Editor Experience | 10 of 14 | Not a theme in its sources |
| Tab Completion | 5 of 11 | Not a theme in its sources |
| Inline Completions | Not a theme in its sources | 9 of 10 |
| GitHub Integration | Not a theme in its sources | 9 of 11 |
| Editor Integration | Not a theme in its sources | 6 of 6 |
| Code Quality | Not a theme in its sources | 5 of 10 |
| Enterprise Administration | Not a theme in its sources | 2 of 6 |
Each count is the sources that praise a theme, or raise it as a concern, out of those that discuss it. A row pairs the two products when both carry a theme under the same or an equivalent name.
A count ending in "so far" has under 5 sources from 3 authors among all practitioners. "Not a theme in its sources" means GILD found no theme of that name in that product's sources.
What practitioners raise as concerns
Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf)'s sources raise Requires Strong Review more often than GitHub Copilot's. It is raised in 18 of the 19 Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) sources that discuss it, against 5 of 10 for GitHub Copilot. Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) alone has three concern themes that reach 5 sources from 3 authors. Agent & Editor Reliability and Vendor Direction lead, at 10 of 10 and 9 of 12. GitHub Copilot alone has three concern themes that reach 5 sources from 3 authors. Quality Against Alternatives and Measuring Impact lead, at 9 of 12 and 4 of 12.
| Raised as a concern | Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) | GitHub Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Requires Strong Review | 18 of 19 | 5 of 10 |
| Usage / Cost | 9 of 13 | 7 of 17 |
| Needs Close Steering | 3 of 8 | 3 of 7 |
| Agent & Editor Reliability | 10 of 10 | Not a theme in its sources |
| Vendor Direction | 9 of 12 | Not a theme in its sources |
| Context Management | 6 of 9 | Not a theme in its sources |
| Quality Against Alternatives | Not a theme in its sources | 9 of 12 |
| Measuring Impact | Not a theme in its sources | 4 of 12 |
| Data, IP & Security | Not a theme in its sources | 2 of 5 |
13 sources
- Devin docs: Self-serve plans
- Devin Desktop docs: Quota-based usage
- Devin Desktop docs: Install
- Devin Desktop docs: Agent Client Protocol
- Devin Desktop docs: Devin in Devin Desktop
- Devin Desktop docs: Context awareness
- Devin Desktop docs: Remote indexing
- Devin Desktop docs: Admin controls reference
- GitHub Copilot plans and pricing
- GitHub docs: Plans for GitHub Copilot
- GitHub docs: GitHub Copilot on GitHub.com
- GitHub docs: Managing Copilot policies in your organization
- Pinna, Gong, Williams, and Sarro, MSR 2026: Comparing AI Coding Agents: A Task-Stratified Analysis of Pull Request Acceptance (Feb 9, 2026)