The Cursor alternative
for the part before the code
Cursor plans the code. Here a team draws the product, then builds it.
Cursor’s prices, Plan Mode and MCP read on cursor.com, 17 September 2026.
Cursor plans the code.
We plan the product.
Cursor’s plan says which files change. A board shows what the user sees.
The plan is a file of paths
Written for whoever changes the code.
The plan is the page
Book a slot
ConfirmOpen on Thursday
A patient picks a slot before they make an account, never after.
Agreed before a file exists. An imaginary clinic.
Keep Cursor.
Drive the team from it.
One endpoint in mcp.json puts the seven inside Cursor.
Cursor writes the code
Open the repo Devi built and carry on.
The seven decide the product
Ask for a project from inside Cursor. We do not meter the runs.
Every Cursor fact here
was read off Cursor
Read on their own site, and dated.
cursor.com/pricing
Hobby free. Pro $20, Ultra $200, Teams $40 per user.
cursor.com/docs, Plan Mode
Agent researches your codebase and writes a Markdown plan of file paths and to-dos.
cursor.com/docs, MCP
Cursor connects to MCP servers, which is how it drives HuntingHydra.
Every seat on a product team,
and you are in all of them.
Seven specialists. You direct all of them. Nadia and Devi are on every project.
Who this is for
Primary persona: Maria and Tom. Two people sharing one pipeline at a twelve-person company. Maria closes, Tom follows up. Neither has ever opened a CRM they liked.
What they are actually buying
- One list both of them trust, instead of two spreadsheets
- Knowing what to do next without a standup to decide it
- Something that survives one of them being on leave
Pain to mirror in the copy
- “Every CRM is built for a sales team of nine”
- Data entry that costs more than the deal is worth
- Reports nobody on a two-person team reads
Competitive frame
Not competing with Pipedrive on features. Competing on the half hour a week it takes to keep it true. The wedge is two people, one list, not “also works for small teams”.
Objections to answer before the fold
- “We already have a spreadsheet” → show the two-column import
- “What happens when we hire a third?” → seats, not tiers
Pipeline
New dealSorted by last touched. Nothing here is a stage nobody uses.
Visual direction for Anouk
- Mode: light, paper-first. This gets read at a desk, not on a phone
- Accent: one colour, used for state and nothing else
- Type: one humanist sans. Numbers tabular, so columns line up
- Density: eight deals on screen without scrolling
Reference
- Linear’s list density, Stripe’s number formatting
- Nothing that needs a second click to read a deal
Open questions before build
- Does a deal belong to a person or to the team?
- Is “won” a stage or a date?
- Do we show currency on every row, or once in the header?
Billing
Invoices
Plan table and invoice list stay two boards, not one.
keep them apart
Four screens to start: Pipeline, Deal detail, Pricing page, Schema. I have put the words on them, so read them before Devi sees any of it.
added 4 boardsBilling wants a plan table and an invoice list, so that is two boards, not one. Drawing both.
added Billing, InvoicesNadiaincluded
Jonah
Deviincluded
Theo
Anouk
Rosa
KitCursor against
HuntingHydra.
Their column comes from their own site.
| Cursor | HuntingHydra | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An AI code editor | A product team on a canvas |
| What the plan is | File paths and to-dos | Boards on a canvas |
| Who does the work | Agent, in your editor | Seven specialists |
| Stacks | Any codebase | Next.js and Postgres |
| Free tier | Yes, Hobby | Three days free, every agent on |
| Teams and SSO | Yes, $40 per user | One seat runs all seven |
| MCP | Client | Server, Cursor can drive it |
Where Cursor fits,
and where we take over
The honest split, and our answer to each.
It is a real editor
If you write the code yourself, keep Cursor open. We hand it a repo with the product already decided.
Any stack
We build one, Next.js with Postgres, and hand you the repo. For anything else, Cursor is one endpoint away over MCP.
You can start free
Hobby costs nothing. Three days here cost nothing either, and the boards you leave with are yours.
Teams and SSO
Teams is $40 per user with SSO. One seat here directs seven specialists.
Plans against real code
For a change deep in an existing system, a plan of file paths fits.
Still not sure?
Three days free, every agent on. Draw the boards, watch the build, then decide.
What people ask
before they switch.
What is the best Cursor alternative?
To plan the product before coding, use boards. Keep Cursor for the code.
Is Cursor free?
Hobby is free. Pro is $20. Checked 17 September 2026.
Does Cursor have a plan mode?
Yes, a file of paths. It plans the code. Boards plan the product.
Can I use HuntingHydra inside Cursor?
Yes. Add one endpoint to mcp.json. Setup is on /docs and takes about five minutes.
Is HuntingHydra a code editor?
No. It draws the boards and builds them into a repo you can open in Cursor.
Cursor plans the code.
This plans the product, then builds it.
Three days free.