My experience with Devin Max! From wasting limits and doubting cloud development to shipping real projects and falling in love with Devin Cloud. Here's what I loved, what could improve, and everything I learned along the way! <3 https://x.com/i/article/2107207617525547008
My Experience with Devin Max: From Skepticism to My Favorite Coding Tool
First of all, I want to express my heartfelt thanks to @dabit3 and the entire @cognitionai team for giving me a second chance to experience Devin Max! I didn't give it nearly as much attention as I should have the first time around, and I'm incredibly grateful that I got another opportunity to explore everything it has to offer.
You guys are amazing, truly. <3
From Windsurf to Devin
I've been a Windsurf user since its launch, and I absolutely loved it from the moment I first tried it. It felt like Cursor, but more thoughtfully designed, visually appealing, and, most importantly, it just worked! At the time, Cursor had quite a few bugs that frustrated me, while Windsurf offered a much smoother experience.
Of course, it wasn't perfect, but it did what I needed, and that was more than enough to make me fall in love with it.
Unfortunately, things changed. After several changes to the platform, Windsurf moved away from credits and adopted usage-based pricing. I was extremely disappointed with that decision, to the point where I stopped using Windsurf entirely for quite a while.
A few weeks, or maybe even months, later, I decided to give it another chance. That's when I discovered they were giving away a few Devin Max subscriptions! I was lucky enough to win one, and Nader was incredibly kind and attentive throughout the process of getting me access.
And that's where my experience with Devin really began.
My First Experience: Models, Limits, and Mistakes
I have to admit something: I didn't make the most of my first Devin Max subscription.
At the time, I was simultaneously testing Cursor, OpenCode Go, and CommandCode Goat. Yes, all three at once! I was so caught up in comparing different tools that I barely paid attention to Devin itself, and I didn't even keep proper notes.
Looking back, that was a pretty stupid mistake.
Still, I managed to get a decent impression of Devin's new limits, and they genuinely surprised me. Despite my initial concerns, I felt that Devin offered one of the best deals available, with access to excellent models at incredibly competitive prices, sometimes even completely free.
That was also when I started regaining my confidence in Cognition.
During that first trial, I spent a lot of time experimenting with SWE-1.7 Lightning. And, well, that's where things got a little messy!
SWE-1.7 was ridiculously fast, which made it extremely tempting to use constantly. Before I knew it, I'd burned through far more of my limits than I intended. I simply wasn't paying enough attention to how much I was consuming.
Eventually, I learned to be more careful and started using it in moderation. Thankfully, the free SWE-1.7 was still good enough for plenty of my tasks, so I wasn't completely stuck.
I had learned my lesson, though. Or at least I thought I had!
Giving Devin Max a Proper Chance
When I got the opportunity to try Devin Max again, I decided to approach things differently.
I started my first week by testing GPT 6 Astra and Fable 5.1 individually, without Fusion, to get a better understanding of how each model performed and how much of my weekly limit they consumed.
And I was genuinely impressed!
Both models handled tasks that other models had struggled with, often using surprisingly little of my weekly allowance. I particularly enjoyed working with Fable, which I found more straightforward, efficient, and reliable than Astra for fixing bugs, addressing vulnerabilities, and implementing new features.
That doesn't mean Astra was bad. Far from it! Both were excellent, but Fable simply worked better for the kinds of tasks I was throwing at it.
Since I wanted to explore Devin as thoroughly as possible, I ended up going through my weekly limit pretty quickly while testing different models and workflows.
This time, however, I was paying attention.
I took plenty of notes about what worked, what didn't, and how to avoid wasting my limits on unnecessary tasks. Those notes ended up being incredibly useful later on.
Meanwhile, the free SWE-1.7 and GLM models helped me keep working without consuming more of my paid allowance. Both were fast, capable, and more than sufficient for many of my everyday tasks.
I wasn't particularly concerned about shipping projects during this period. My goal was to experiment, learn, and understand how to get the most out of Devin.
And I was having a great time doing it.
Discovering Fusion
Eventually, I discovered Fusion, and it quickly became one of my favorite ways to use Devin!
At the time, I was working on several projects under a collection I called optionFamily. These were personal tools I had started building to replace some GTK applications on GNOME.
The existing apps were often too basic for what I needed, and I couldn't find alternatives that properly matched my preferences. So, naturally, I decided to build my own and eventually make them public!
Fusion fit perfectly into this workflow.
Being able to work with powerful models like Astra and Fable across multiple projects simultaneously, without exhausting my limits nearly as quickly, was incredibly convenient.
Instead of constantly worrying about which task deserved my remaining allowance, I could focus more on actually building things.
This was also around the time I started experimenting with Devin Cloud.
Now, there's something you should know about me: I love keeping everything local. My files, projects, tools, and development environments all feel better when they're running directly on my own machine.
Because of that, I was initially pretty skeptical of Devin's cloud-based approach. In fact, I wasn't particularly interested in what was arguably one of its biggest features!
I made quite a few mistakes while figuring it out, wasted more of my limits on silly things, and occasionally wondered whether cloud development was even for me.
But that opinion would change dramatically.
For now, though, Fusion had already become a major part of my workflow, both locally and in the cloud.
During this period, I also managed to ship several projects, particularly Discord bots for communities I was involved with.
I don't have a massive technical breakdown of Fusion to share. I just know that it became the mode I used the most, and it made working across several projects much more enjoyable.
Devin Desktop, CLI, and My Terminal Workflow
Unfortunately, I wasn't equally enthusiastic about every part of the Devin experience.
One thing I didn't particularly enjoy was Devin Desktop.
Coming from Windsurf, I wasn't a huge fan of some of the changes introduced during the transition. Windsurf had a simplicity and visual polish that I genuinely appreciated, and I felt that some of that charm was lost along the way.
Devin Desktop is certainly functional, but I think its interface could be more intuitive, consistent, and visually refined. Some aspects of the UI simply didn't appeal to me, and the overall experience didn't feel as streamlined as I would've liked.
Because of that, along with a few personal preferences, I rarely used the native desktop application.
Instead, I spent most of my time working through Devin CLI, OMP (+ herdr), and @trySynara, alongside Devin Cloud.
And I have to say, Devin CLI was fantastic!
I've used a lot of terminal-based tools over the years, and Devin CLI easily ranks among the most enjoyable experiences I've had in a terminal. It felt powerful, convenient, and surprisingly pleasant to use.
Of course, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows.
I encountered occasional slowdowns, freezes, and visual glitches. None of them were particularly serious, and I managed to work around everything without contacting support. Many of those issues may have already been fixed, since most were relatively minor.
Despite those inconveniences, I genuinely loved working with it.
This entire period was also incredibly productive beyond traditional software development. I used Devin to customize my computer, troubleshoot problems that weren't even directly related to code, learn new things, and start prototyping ideas for my biggest solo project, @abstractthq!
But none of that prepared me for what would eventually become my favorite part of the entire experience.
Devin Cloud: The Feature That Changed Everything
Devin Cloud.
Remember how I mentioned that I wasn't particularly interested in cloud development?
Well, forget everything I thought about it back then.
After learning more about Devin Cloud and discovering that I could work with macOS virtual machines, I finally decided to give it a proper chance.
And wow.
I genuinely wasn't expecting to enjoy it this much.
The website felt polished, the interface was responsive, and everything was surprisingly easy to use. Most importantly, it just worked!
It reminded me of the excitement I felt when Windsurf first launched. That feeling of discovering a tool that makes you genuinely excited to sit down and build something.
Except this time, I wasn't limited to my local development environment.
Devin could plan, implement, test, debug, and help ship entire projects with remarkably little intervention on my part. Tasks that previously required me to constantly switch between tools and environments suddenly felt much more manageable.
And the flexibility was incredible!
Hardware limitations and operating system differences became much less of a concern. Even with the ongoing RAM crisis, I could experiment with environments and projects without needing to upgrade my own machine or maintain several computers.
For someone who loves experimenting with software but doesn't have unlimited hardware resources, that was a huge deal.
I could work on projects that would've been difficult or inconvenient to handle entirely on my own computer, while Devin took care of much of the heavy lifting.
And the best part? I didn't even need to be home.
I found myself using Devin to code, test ideas, and continue building projects while I was away from my computer. Having access to such a capable development environment from practically anywhere felt incredible.
Seriously, this is such a powerful tool to have at this price point.
Need a code review? Devin can help.
Want to turn an app idea into a working prototype? Devin can help with that too.
Need to test something on another operating system without buying another computer? That's where things get really interesting.
Having a terrible day and just want to experiment with something ridiculous for fun? Somehow, Devin can make that entertaining too!
For developers on tight budgets, independent builders, and people who simply don't have three different computers sitting around for testing, I think Devin Cloud offers something genuinely valuable.
And it's not just about convenience.
It's about being able to experiment more freely, learn through trial and error, and build things that might otherwise feel out of reach.
After spending so much time avoiding cloud-based tools, I actually found myself wanting to explore more of them.
I never expected that!
Of all the Cognition products I tried, Devin Cloud was easily the most polished experience for me.
I preferred its interface over Desktop, encountered fewer issues than I did with CLI, and finally felt like I was experiencing the kind of AI development workflow I'd been hoping to find for a long time.
Was absolutely everything perfect? Of course not.
But for my needs, it came remarkably close.
Building Something Bigger: Aspas Labs
Stepping away from Devin Cloud itself for a moment, I want to share something that made this experience even more meaningful.
A colleague and I had been discussing some ambitious ideas for a new Brazilian AI lab.
What started as a few conversations eventually turned into something we decided to take seriously: @aspaslabs!
We're still a small, new team with a limited budget, but we have plenty of ideas and a strong desire to experiment, learn, and build things together.
And Devin has played a huge role in helping us get started.
From backend and frontend development to prototyping, testing, and refining different parts of our projects, we've relied heavily on both Devin Cloud and Local.
A substantial amount of that work was accomplished with Devin's assistance, which is something I genuinely wouldn't have imagined possible before this experience.
It hasn't magically eliminated every challenge, of course. We still make mistakes, rethink decisions, and run into problems.
But being able to move from an idea to something tangible so quickly has made the entire process much more exciting.
For a small team without a massive budget or infrastructure, that kind of flexibility means a lot.
What I Actually Built
Throughout my time with Devin Max, I worked on quite a few projects, experiments, and prototypes.
Some were personal tools, others were built for communities, and a few became part of much larger ambitions.
I especially want to highlight these projects:
- Usagenometer (local usage and tokens tracker)
- HoryTweaks (BetterAmongUS's fork with some extra features)
- optionMusic (local CLI music player)
- Abstract (clean, fast and optimized obsidian alternative)
All of these were built using Devin as my main development tool, with additional help from tools like Synara and community-created skills.
For me, these projects are some of the best examples of what made the experience worthwhile.
I wasn't just chatting with models or running isolated benchmarks. I was actually using these tools to turn my ideas into real software.
And that's what matters most to me.
Final Thoughts
Looking back, my experience with Devin Max has been quite a journey.
I started as someone who loved Windsurf, became disappointed with some of the platform's changes, wasted much of my first Devin Max trial, and initially dismissed cloud development as something that simply wasn't for me.
Then I gave it another chance.
I experimented with different models, learned to manage my limits, discovered Fusion, fell in love with Devin CLI, and eventually found myself using Devin Cloud for projects I never would've expected to build this way.
Along the way, I made plenty of mistakes, encountered bugs, wasted resources, and learned an incredible amount.
But I also shipped projects, explored new technologies, improved my workflow, and helped bring some genuinely exciting ideas to life.
Devin didn't just make me more productive. It changed the way I think about building software.
That's probably the biggest compliment I can give it.
I still have criticisms, particularly regarding Desktop's interface, occasional CLI stability issues, and how easy it can be to burn through usage limits when you're not paying attention.
But none of those things erase how much I enjoyed the overall experience.
I came into this second opportunity hoping to give Devin a fair chance. I ended up discovering one of my favorite development tools.
And I'm genuinely excited to see what Cognition builds next!
If you've been using Devin too, I'd love to hear about your experience. What have you built? Which models and workflows do you prefer? Have you run into any of the same problems?
I'm always happy to learn from other developers and discover interesting projects!
Finally, one more huge thank you to @dabit3 and the entire @cognitionai team for giving me another opportunity to explore Devin Max.
Your generosity allowed me to discover new tools, improve the way I work, and experiment with ideas that might otherwise have stayed on my to-do list.
It genuinely means a lot.
Thank you for everything. You're the best! <3