AI tools for web development: Refact.ai vs Cursor. Who builds the better web UI?

AI tools are reshaping frontend workflows in 2025. Solutions for AI programming like Refact.ai and Cursor are making devs faster than ever, but which one is the best AI coding agent for web dev?

In this Refact.ai vs Cursor comparison, let’s test how each AI agent handles a real React frontend build. Goal: find the most reliable AI code agent for web developers — one that follows the prompt and produces clean, deployable output.

What is Refact.ai?

Refact.ai is an open-source AI agent for programming. It understands your codebase, connects to dev tools (GitHub, Web, MCP servers), and works with both top commercial models and your own. It runs in VS Code and JetBrains.

Refact is also the first programming agent with long-term memory: it builds a reusable knowledge base of effective solutions, preserves context across sessions, and supports Team Memory shared by Agents within the same workspace.

What is Cursor?

Cursor is an AI code editor, a fork of VS Code with deep ChatGPT integration. You can write code through instructions and use its agent mode. It’s polished, clean, and largely “plug-and-play.""

So, how well do Refact.ai and Cursor perform under real coding conditions on a web-development task?

AI tools for web development: Hands-on evaluation

Let’s evaluate AI agents on the same task: build a café website with Sonnet 4.

Prompt: Build a modern, visually aesthetic café website using React (no backend).

Requirements:

Page structure (single page spp):

• Header: sticky top bar with café logo on left and nav links (Home, Menu, About, Contact) on right
• Hero Section: full viewport height, background café image with overlay text: “Welcome to Brew Haven” and a CTA button (“Explore Menu”)
• Menu Section: 6 item cards in a responsive 3-column grid (on desktop), 2-column (tablet), 1-column (mobile) — each card has image, name, and price
• About Section: two-column layout — left has background image (café vibe), right has about text in soft serif font
• Contact Section: elegant form with Name, Email, and Message inputs and Submit button.

Styling & aesthetic:

• Use warm earth tones (deep brown #5C4033, cream #FFF8E7, soft orange #F4A261)
• Font: Playfair Display for headings, Open Sans for body
• Rounded corners (border-radius: 12px), smooth hover effects
• Background sections with alternating light/dark contrast
• Use clean, minimalist whitespace padding/margin.

Tech Stack:

• Use functional React components and Hooks where needed.
• CSS Modules or scoped styles (no Tailwind or styled-components)
• Responsive with media queries (768px, 480px)
• Add smooth scrolling navigation when nav links are clicked.

Deliverables:

• All components in a single React file (or modular with comments)
• Include mock image links (e.g., Unsplash placeholders)
• Make sure form is styled and fully responsive
• No external libraries for layout — just raw CSS.
• ⚠️ Do not use create-react-app or CRA boilerplate. Just assume this is part of a Vite or basic React setup.

Refact.ai vs Cursor: Which AI Agent is better for frontend programming?

To run a real-world comparison of autonomous AI agents on a frontend task, we used the same prompt to generate a React-base website in both Refact.ai and Cursor.

Here’s how each tool performed:

Refact.ai (left):

• Followed prompt perfectly
• Clean layout, grid system, and spacing
• Background image + text contrast handled well
• Button styled with consistent theme
• Fully responsive and Vite-ready
• No setup errors.

Cursor (right):

• First attempt had Vite config issues
• Bad card layout: only 2 items rendered
• Design not aligned with brand theme (wrong header bg)
• Typography was close
• No consistent spacing or padding across sections.

Refact.ai (left):

• All 6 menu items rendered with names, images, descriptions, and prices
• Card layout with consistent spacing, rounded corners, and subtle shadows
• Consistent font hierarchy (name > description > price)
• Colors aligned to the café theme (warm browns and oranges)
• No rendering or asset issues.

Cursor (right):

• All 6 menu items rendered with names and prices; card layout with rounded corners and subtle shadows
• Some cards have missing images or use placeholder broken backgrounds
• Product descriptions missing for several items
• Inconsistent font sizing and spacing.

Final thoughts: Frontend build with AI — Refact.ai vs Cursor

✅ Refact.ai: A polished site you can deploy immediately. A strong AI tool for UI work.
🟠 Cursor: Usable, but needs manual fixes to meet the prompt’s expectation.

So for front-end developers looking for an AI to create websites, Refact.ai may offer a faster path to clean, production-ready results. It handles both logic and visual styling with greater consistency and precision.

Why Refact.ai wins as an AI tool for web development

Cursor is great if you’re prototyping or chatting with code.

But when it comes to building real software, you need more from AI. Refact.ai Agent autonomously handles programming tasks end to end, integrates deeply with your tools, runs locally if needed, and gives you full control over models, latency, and privacy.

No cloud lag, no vendor lock-in; Just clean, production-ready solutions — instantly.

Looking for an AI to create websites that you can trust? Try Refact.ai in VS Code or JetBrains: it isn’t just smart, it delivers results autonomously.