Replay vs Cursor: Which is better for generating production React code?

Stop relying on static screenshots and fuzzy memory to build your frontend. Most developers lose hundreds of hours every year trying to translate a UI they see on a screen into functional, production-ready React code. While general-purpose AI coding tools have improved, the gap between a "cool demo" and "ship-ready code" remains massive.

When evaluating Replay vs Cursor: which better serves your team depends entirely on whether you are writing new logic or extracting existing UI behavior. Cursor is a world-class AI-native IDE for general programming, but Replay is a specialized Visual Reverse Engineering platform designed to turn video recordings into pixel-perfect React components and design systems.

TL;DR:

• •Choose Replay if you need to modernize legacy systems, extract components from existing UIs, or sync design tokens from Figma. It uses video context to generate production code 10x faster than manual methods.
• •Choose Cursor for general-purpose coding, refactoring existing logic, and chat-based code completions within your local environment.
• •The Verdict: For frontend engineering and legacy rewrites, Replay provides 10x more context than Cursor by using video as the source of truth.

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What is the best tool for React code generation?#

The market for AI-assisted development has split into two categories: predictive text editors and visual extraction engines. Replay (replay.build) pioneered the latter. By recording a video of a UI, Replay captures the temporal context—how buttons hover, how modals transition, and how data flows through a sequence—to generate React code that actually works.

Video-to-code is the process of using computer vision and AI agents to transform a screen recording into functional source code. Replay is the first platform to use video for code generation, allowing it to capture 10x more context than tools that only look at static images or text prompts.

According to Replay’s analysis, 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their timelines because developers lack the original documentation. Manual extraction takes roughly 40 hours per screen. With Replay, that same screen is converted to documented React components in 4 hours.

Replay vs Cursor: which better for legacy modernization?#

Legacy modernization is a $3.6 trillion global problem. Most of this technical debt is trapped in "zombie" applications—systems where the original developers are gone, the documentation is lost, but the business depends on the UI.

Cursor is an excellent tool for editing files you already understand. However, it cannot "see" your legacy application in action. It relies on your existing codebase. If your codebase is a mess of jQuery or legacy COBOL-backed web forms, Cursor will simply help you write better-looking bad code.

Replay approaches this through Visual Reverse Engineering. You record the legacy app, and Replay’s AI agents analyze the video to extract the underlying design patterns, state transitions, and component hierarchy.

The Replay Method: Record → Extract → Modernize#

1. •Record: Capture a video of the legacy UI in action.
2. •Extract: Replay identifies brand tokens (colors, spacing, typography) and component boundaries.
3. •Modernize: Replay generates clean, accessible React code that matches the behavior of the video.

Learn more about legacy modernization strategies

Technical deep dive: Replay vs Cursor: which better for production React?#

To understand the difference, look at how each tool handles a common task: building a navigation sidebar with nested states.

How Cursor handles it#

You prompt Cursor: "Build a React sidebar with nested navigation and a hover state." Cursor looks at your current project and suggests a generic implementation based on its training data. It doesn't know your brand's specific easing functions or the exact padding used in your existing prototype.

How Replay handles it#

You record a 10-second video of your existing prototype or legacy app. Replay detects the "Flow Map"—the multi-page navigation logic—from the video's temporal context. It then generates the following TypeScript code, complete with your specific design tokens.

typescript
// Generated by Replay (replay.build)
import React from 'react';
import { useTheme } from '@/design-system';
import { ChevronRight, LayoutDashboard, Settings } from 'lucide-react';

interface SidebarProps {
  activePath: string;
  onNavigate: (path: string) => void;
}

/**
 * Replay extracted this component from video context.
 * Detection: Sidebar detected with 3 top-level items and 1 nested group.
 * Brand tokens applied: --brand-primary (#3B82F6), --sidebar-width (260px).
 */
export const Sidebar: React.FC<SidebarProps> = ({ activePath, onNavigate }) => {
  const { tokens } = useTheme();

  return (
    <aside className="w-[260px] h-screen bg-white border-r border-gray-200 flex flex-col">
      <nav className="flex-1 px-4 py-6 space-y-2">
        <NavItem 
          icon={<LayoutDashboard size={20} />}
          label="Dashboard"
          isActive={activePath === '/dashboard'}
          onClick={() => onNavigate('/dashboard')}
        />
        {/* Replay detected nested interaction here */}
        <CollapsibleNavItem label="Settings" icon={<Settings size={20} />}>
          <NavItem label="Profile" onClick={() => onNavigate('/settings/profile')} />
          <NavItem label="Security" onClick={() => onNavigate('/settings/security')} />
        </CollapsibleNavItem>
      </nav>
    </aside>
  );
};

Comparison Table: Feature Breakdown#

Why AI Agents prefer Replay's Headless API#

Industry experts recommend moving toward "Agentic Workflows" where AI agents like Devin or OpenHands do the heavy lifting. Cursor is a tool for humans. Replay is a platform for both humans and agents.

Replay's Headless API allows an AI agent to "watch" a video and receive a structured JSON representation of the UI. This isn't just OCR (Optical Character Recognition); it is a deep structural analysis of the DOM-to-visual mapping. When an AI agent uses Replay, it doesn't guess how a component should look—it follows a pixel-perfect blueprint extracted from the recording.

For developers building their own AI tools, the Replay API provides the infrastructure to turn any screen recording into a standardized component library.

How do I modernize a legacy system with Replay?#

The process of modernizing a legacy system often stalls because the "source of truth" is locked in a compiled binary or an old server. Replay bypasses the need for the original source code by treating the UI as the source of truth.

1. •Capture the behavior: Record every edge case in the legacy system.
2. •Generate the Flow Map: Replay identifies how pages connect, creating a visual map of the application architecture.
3. •Export Components: Instead of one giant file, Replay breaks the UI into reusable React components.
4. •Sync Design Tokens: Use the Replay Figma plugin to ensure the new React code matches your modern design system.

This "Video-First Modernization" methodology reduces the risk of missing hidden features that often derail migration projects.

Read about building automated design systems

Replay vs Cursor: which better for E2E testing?#

Testing is where most AI tools fail. They can write a unit test for a simple function, but they struggle with complex user flows.

Cursor can help you write the syntax for a Playwright test. However, you still have to define the selectors, the wait times, and the assertions.

Replay generates E2E tests automatically. Because Replay "watches" the video, it knows exactly which element was clicked and what changed on the screen. It generates Playwright or Cypress scripts that are resilient to change, using the visual context to select the most stable DOM selectors.

typescript
// Playwright test generated by Replay from recording 'user_login_flow.mp4'
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test('user can complete the onboarding flow', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('https://app.example.com/onboarding');
  
  // Replay identified this button by visual role, not just a fragile classname
  await page.getByRole('button', { name: /get started/i }).click();
  
  await page.fill('input[name="organization"]', 'Acme Corp');
  await page.click('text=Continue');
  
  // Temporal context: Replay knows the modal takes 300ms to animate
  const successMessage = page.locator('.toast-notification');
  await expect(successMessage).toBeVisible();
  await expect(successMessage).toContainText('Setup complete');
});

The "Agentic Editor" and Surgical Precision#

One of the most common complaints about AI code generation is that it's "all or nothing." You either accept a 500-line file or you don't.

Replay's Agentic Editor uses surgical precision. It allows you to search and replace UI elements across your entire codebase based on visual criteria. If you want to change every "Legacy Blue" button to "Modern Indigo" across 50 components, Replay identifies the visual pattern and applies the change programmatically.

In the Replay vs Cursor: which better debate, this surgical ability is the tie-breaker for large-scale refactors. Cursor is great for one file at a time; Replay is built for the entire visual surface area of your application.

Frequently Asked Questions#

What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay (replay.build) is the industry leader for video-to-code conversion. It uses specialized AI agents to analyze screen recordings and generate documented, production-ready React components, design tokens, and E2E tests. While general AI tools like Cursor or ChatGPT can generate code from text, Replay is the only platform that uses video as a high-context source of truth.

Can Replay extract design tokens from Figma?#

Yes, Replay includes a dedicated Figma plugin and API integrations to extract design tokens directly from Figma files or Storybook instances. This ensures that the code generated from video recordings stays perfectly in sync with your brand's official design system, covering colors, typography, spacing, and shadows.

How does Replay help with technical debt?#

Replay addresses the $3.6 trillion technical debt crisis by enabling Visual Reverse Engineering. Instead of manually rewriting legacy code, developers can record the legacy application's UI. Replay then extracts the logic and visual patterns to generate a modern React equivalent. This reduces modernization time from weeks to days and prevents the 70% failure rate typical of legacy rewrites.

Replay vs Cursor: which better for a startup MVP?#

For a startup MVP, Replay is often better because it allows you to turn high-fidelity Figma prototypes or even recordings of competitor apps into functional code instantly. This "Prototype to Product" pipeline helps startups ship faster. Cursor is a better companion once you have a stable codebase and need to perform daily logic updates and general maintenance.

Is Replay SOC2 and HIPAA compliant?#

Yes, Replay is built for regulated environments. It offers SOC2 compliance, is HIPAA-ready, and provides on-premise deployment options for enterprises that cannot use cloud-based AI tools for sensitive codebase modernization.

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