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Devin Desktop vs GLM (Z.ai)
A plain-English comparison to help you choose between them.
One sells you a new editor, the other re-powers the tools you have: Devin Desktop is an agentic IDE with its own local agent, GLM a flat-rate plan feeding open-weight models into clients such as Claude Code. Pick Devin Desktop when you want the editor anticipating, multi-file edits arriving from context without brief-writing ceremony, unlimited tab autocomplete, and quota-refresh pricing that stays predictable. Pick GLM when your client is already chosen and the bill is the problem, a low flat subscription carrying routine agent volume, reversible with a configuration edit.
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Side by side
- Summary
Devin Desktop, formerly Windsurf, is the local IDE of Cognition's Devin family: an agentic editor whose local agent executes multi-step coding tasks, with unlimited tab autocompletion and quota-based pricing that refreshes predictably rather than metering anxiety.
The family position matters: the same company's autonomous Devin handles delegation in the cloud, while this is the hands-on editor for daily work, after a mid-2026 rebrand that folded the Windsurf identity into Devin.
MoreLess
For teams allergic to ecosystem churn, that recent history is itself a datum; for everyone else, it is a capable agentic IDE with unusually predictable economics.
- Best for
- Agentic editing with a local multi-step agent
- Unlimited tab autocomplete without metering
- Predictable quota-refresh pricing
- Daily hands-on work in the Devin family
- Developers pairing an IDE with an autonomous sibling
- Cost
- Freemium (Free tier + paid plans)
- Ease
- Openness
- Hosted service
- Data
- Standard cloud-assistant posture with enterprise controls on team plans; code context handling is documented for review.
- Summary
GLM is Z.ai's coding-first model family, sold both as a change to what powers the client you already use and through ZCode, Z.ai's own first-party client on the same Coding Plan quota. The GLM Coding Plan runs open-weight models inside clients such as Claude Code: you keep the client, the workflow and the keybindings, and change what feeds them with a configuration edit rather than a migration. For a team already settled into its tooling, that is the cheapest structural change on offer.
The honest working pattern is a daily driver plus a retained frontier seat. GLM carries the routine coding volume, while ambiguous specs and sustained multi-agent work still go to the closed frontier models, which remain ahead on exactly that kind of task. No tool is best for everyone; this one is unusually clear about which half of the work it wants.
- Best for
- Flat-rate coding subscription
- MIT-licensed GLM-5.2 open weights you can self-host
- A 1M-token context for large-codebase work
- Pay-per-token API access alongside the subscription
- A coding-first family, not a general-purpose assistant
- Cost
- Freemium (Free tier + paid plans)
- Ease
- Openness
- Runs privately (self-hostable)
- Data
- GLM's hosted terms point to Singapore while its developer is Chinese-founded, a jurisdiction point to weigh before routing real code or prompts through it. Self-hosting the open weights removes that question entirely: the model runs on infrastructure you control, and nothing leaves it.
Pricing
- Devin Desktop
Free·$20·$200·from $80·Custom
Prices as of August 2026.
- Free
- Free
- Pro
- $20per monthusage billed at API rates
- Max
- $200per monthusage billed at API rates
- Teams
- from $80per monthusage billed at API rates
- Enterprise
- Price on applicationno list price published
- GLM (Z.ai)
$12.60·$56·$117.60$79.20/user·$169.20/user
Prices as of August 2026.
- Lite
- $12.60per monthbilled annually; $18 per month if billed monthly
- Pro
- $56per monthbilled annually; $80 per month if billed monthly
- Max
- $117.60per monthbilled annually; $168 per month if billed monthly
- Standard Seat
- $79.20per user, per monthbilled annually; $88 per user per month if billed monthly
- Premium Seat
- $169.20per user, per monthbilled annually; $188 per user per month if billed monthly
By area
Where each one pulls ahead, area by area.
| Area | Devin Desktop | GLM (Z.ai) |
|---|---|---|
| By job | ||
| Software development | Devin Desktop is for the developer to whom multi-file AI edits appeal and prompt engineering as a hobby does not, with the local agent picking up context from what is already happening | GLM (Z.ai) — when the running cost is the thing to restructure and the client should stay exactly as it is |
| By task | ||
| Coding & software development | Devin Desktop keeps unlimited tab autocomplete out of the metering entirely and holds the economics predictable through quota-refresh pricing | GLM sustains long agentic sessions across the 1M-token context, which is where an agent that keeps working actually spends its time |
Common questions
Are these even the same purchase?
Adjacent purchases with one budget line: both lower the cost or friction of daily agent-assisted coding. The fork is commitment. Devin Desktop asks you to adopt an editor, a VS Code fork with the agent woven in; GLM asks you to change nothing except what powers the client you already run. Teams settled in a workflow lean GLM; teams still choosing lean the IDE.
What histories should an evaluation weigh?
Devin Desktop's is churn: formerly Windsurf, folded into the Devin family in a mid-2026 rebrand that follows earlier upheavals, a datum for stability-first buyers who should evaluate the current product rather than the old name. GLM's is jurisdictional: the hosted terms point to Singapore while the developer is Chinese-founded, a question some organisations must answer before routing source code through it, with self-hosting the structural out.
Where do both defer to the frontier?
On the hardest work, and GLM says so plainly: ambiguous specifications and sustained multi-agent sessions still favour the closed frontier models, so its plan is a daily driver beside a retained frontier seat. Devin Desktop's family answer is different, the same company's autonomous cloud Devin handling delegation when the local editor's rhythm is not the right shape for the task.
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Tool facts last checked August 2026