Local AI Coding Assistant: Cursor vs VS Code + Ollama + Continue

A comparative guide for developers seeking a private, free alternative to GitHub Copilot. Contrasts the polished experience of Cursor with the DIY flexibility of VS Code + Continue. Key Sections: 1. **The Privacy Imperative:** Why send code to the cloud if you don't have to? 2. **Setup Guide:** Configuring Ollama with DeepSeek-Coder-V2. 3. **Integration:** Setting up the 'Continue' extension in VS Code. Connecting context providers. 4. **The Cursor Alternative:** How Cursor's local mode compares (pros/cons). 5. **Quality Comparison:** Side-by-side code completions from local 7B models vs GPT-4o. **Internal Linking Strategy:** Link to Pillar. Link to 'Benchmarking Local Models'. Link to 'Claude Code' pulse article. Continue reading Local AI Coding Assistant: Cursor vs VS Code + Ollama + Continue on SitePoint .