Frontman vs Cursor

Your whole team can touch the UI. Designers click the element that needs work, describe the change in plain English, and Frontman edits the actual source files. PMs can adjust copy, spacing, or component props without filing a ticket. Engineers review the diff like any other PR. Everyone works from the same running app — no Figma-to-code translation step, no "can you move this 4px to the left" Slack threads.

It sees what the browser sees. Cursor reads your JSX files, but by default it has never seen what they render. It doesn't know that your hero section overflows at 768px, that the computed font size is 18px not 16px, or that a sibling component's margin is pushing your layout. Frontman integrates with your framework as a plugin and runs a browser-side MCP server that inspects live DOM, computed CSS, viewport layout, and rendered component hierarchy. When you click an element, Frontman resolves the source location via source maps and knows exactly which file, component, and line rendered it.

Click-to-edit workflow. Instead of describing which file to open, you click the element you want to change. The AI already knows the component, its source location, its styles, and its context in the rendered page. "Make this card's shadow more subtle" works because Frontman can see the card.

Hot reload closes the feedback loop. Frontman edits actual source files, and the framework's built-in HMR handles live reloading automatically. Edit, see result, edit again happens in the browser without switching windows. A designer can iterate through three variations in the time it takes to write one Jira ticket.

Real code, not overrides. Every change Frontman makes is a source file edit — the same code your engineers write by hand. No visual-editor CSS overrides, no separate layer to maintain. Changes go through your existing review process and ship like any other commit. Your design system stays clean.

Open source and BYOK. Frontman is free while in beta, with per-seat team pricing coming soon. The client libraries are Apache 2.0 and the server is AGPL-3.0 — self-hosting will always be an option. You bring your own API keys to Anthropic, OpenAI, or OpenRouter — or sign in with your Claude or ChatGPT subscription via OAuth.

Frontman is built for product teams where UI iteration is a bottleneck — not just individual developers. Specifically:

• Design system teams at growing startups — your system is live, your components are real, and you need designers and engineers iterating on them together without a Figma-to-ticket-to-PR bottleneck
• Designers who want to iterate directly on the product — click elements in the running app, describe changes, and see results instantly. No IDE, no terminal, no waiting for engineering capacity
• PMs who ship small UI changes themselves — update copy, adjust spacing, tweak component props. Every change is a real code diff your engineers can review
• Engineering leads reducing design-to-code handoff friction — fewer "make it match the Figma" tickets, more direct iteration on the actual product
• Teams using Next.js, Astro, or Vite — deep framework plugin integration means Frontman understands your component structure, not just file contents
• Companies with security or compliance requirements — open source (Apache 2.0 / AGPL-3.0), self-hostable, BYOK. Free during beta with team pricing coming soon

Many teams use both tools. Engineers use Cursor for backend work, refactoring, and general-purpose coding. The broader product team uses Frontman for visual iteration in the browser.

For a deeper technical comparison including Claude Code, read our full comparison of Frontman, Cursor, and Claude Code. Also see: Frontman vs Stagewise for a comparison with another browser-based tool.