Onneta vs Cursor
Cursor writes code. Onneta runs the business.
Cursor is great — we use it ourselves. But it's for engineers writing software. Onneta is for someone who has a business idea and wants the whole back-office handled. Different jobs, different categories. Here's the honest difference.
The honest comparison
Same brain. Six different jobs.
Both run on Anthropic's Claude Agent SDK. The difference is what we wrap around it. Cursor wraps an editor for engineers. Onneta wraps a business operator for founders.
What it does
Cursor
Onneta
Writes code
Both ship real diffs to your repo. Cursor is a desktop IDE with AI assist; Onneta runs the same Claude Agent SDK loop on a hosted machine.
Remembers your business between sessions
Cursor remembers a chat context within one session. Onneta builds persistent business memory — brand voice, rules, facts — that every reply reads from.
Drafts and sends your customer email
ONI replies to inbound mail in your voice, drafts proposals, follow-ups, and newsletters. Cursor doesn't have an inbox.
Sends invoices with Stripe pay-now
ONI drafts the invoice in your voice and emails it with a Pay button. Cursor doesn't bill your clients.
Keeps a CRM that grows with you
Inbound contact forms, invoice clients, and inbox replies all populate the same CRM ONI reads before its next move. Cursor's contact list is the IDE's recent files.
Runs while you're asleep
Optional auto-pilot mode picks the next pending plan item and ships it on a schedule. Cursor only runs when you're typing.
A day in the life
What a Tuesday morning looks like.
In Cursor
- You open VS Code and Cursor
- You type the file you want to change
- You write a prompt for the diff
- You review the suggested diff, accept or refine
- You commit + push yourself
- You alt-tab to Gmail to answer overnight email
- You alt-tab to Stripe to chase yesterday's invoice
- You alt-tab to Notion to update the CRM
In Onneta
- You open your phone → see ONI's morning digest
- ONI shipped 3 things overnight (commits + diffs in the feed)
- 3 inbound emails were drafted in your voice — you tap Send or Tweak
- Invoice #042 (14 days old) — ONI drafted the follow-up; one tap to send
- Coffee. Then you tell ONI “add a contact form to the home page” and walk away
Pick Cursor when
You're a developer writing software.
- You already know what to build and you just want a faster IDE
- You handle email, invoices, CRM yourself (or have a team that does)
- You want to stay in VS Code — never leave the editor
- Your project doesn't have customers to email yet
Cursor is $20/mo — cheaper than Onneta if all you need is the code.
Pick Onneta when
You have a business and you don't want to run it alone.
- You have an idea, not a finished spec — ONI studies what you describe
- You want the site AND the inbox AND the invoices handled, not just code
- You'd rather chat than open an editor
- You want one tool that learns your brand and stays consistent
$29/mo Growth covers ~30 cycles + custom domain + a mailbox.
Honest gotchas
Where Cursor still wins.
We're not going to pretend Onneta is universally better. Cursor is great at what it does. Here's where it beats us.
Cursor is cheaper at the surface
Cursor is $20/mo flat. Onneta starts free, Growth is $29/mo. If all you need is code completion, Cursor wins on price.
Cursor stays out of your way more
It only runs when you type. Onneta's autopilot can run cycles in the background — useful when you want shipping to keep going, intrusive if you want to step away for a week.
Onneta is opinionated about your brand
We read what you describe and lock in a brand voice. Cursor doesn't. If you want to write totally different things on different days, that's harder with Onneta.
Onneta is hosted — you don't bring your own machine
Code runs on our server, commits push to your GitHub repo. Cursor runs on your machine. Some people prefer that; some prefer not to babysit infrastructure.
Still curious?
$5 trial credit. No card. Try it for 20 minutes.
If it doesn't click in your first session, Cursor will still be there. We'd rather lose the click than oversell.