Our take
Pick Nova if mac developers who will finish the 30-day trial then keep Nova at US$99 — plus US$49/year if they want updates after year one, not Cursor Plus $8 first unless they want an Agent/Tab VS Code fork, and not if they need Windows or Linux. Pick Zed if developers who will stay on Personal at $0 forever (BYO keys / Claude Agent / Codex CLI) while they open a first Threads Sidebar, then Pro at $10/month when
Best for
Nova A native Mac IDE you start at a public $
Zed A native agent desk you start at a public $
Free plan
Nova No free plan
Zed $0 · forever. Card: “The next-generation code editor. Free forever.” Unlimited use with your API keys or external agents (Claude Agent, Codex CLI, and more)
Lowest paid
Nova Update plan $49/yr
Zed Pro $10/mo
Next step up
Nova Coda 1/2 upgrade $79
Zed
Coding agent
Nova
Zed Threads Sidebar
Runs where
Nova
Zed Desktop editor; models hosted
Watch out
Nova macOS-only (15.6+)
Zed Personal has no Zed-hosted token pool
Last checked
Nova 2026-10-23 · nova.app/buy
Zed 2026-10-23 · zed.dev/pricing
mac developers who will finish the 30-day trial then keep Nova at US$99 — plus US$49/year if they want updates after year one, not Cursor Plus $8 first unless they want an Agent/Tab VS Code fork, and not if they need Windows or Linux.
Read the Nova pagedevelopers who will stay on Personal at $0 forever (BYO keys / Claude Agent / Codex CLI) while they open a first Threads Sidebar, then Pro at $10/month when they want Zed-hosted models and $5 of included tokens — not Business $30/seat first unless they need org AI policies / unified spend.
Read the Zed page
