If you're starting to build websites with AI, you've probably met three names: Cursor, ChatGPT and Claude. People argue about which is "best", as if you had to pick one. You don't. They do different jobs, and the people who get good results know which job belongs where.
This guide explains what each tool is, in plain English, which kind of job suits it, and the mistakes that cost beginners the most time.
01The short answer
- Plan in a chat assistant. ChatGPT (or Claude) is where you think: what the site is for, who visits it, what it should say.
- Build in Cursor. Cursor is a code editor with AI built in. It reads your project's files and changes them for you.
The course calls this plan in ChatGPT, build in Cursor. Knowing the split is the easy part. The hard part, and what the course teaches, is how the plan gets from one tool to the other without losing anything, and what to say to each tool so it builds what you meant.
02ChatGPT: your architect's desk
ChatGPT is an AI you chat with in a browser or an app. It can only see what you paste into it, and it can't change the files in your project. It writes text.
That makes it the right place for decisions, because changing your mind there costs one message. It's good for planning a site, drafting headlines and service descriptions, making practice images, and asking "what does this word mean?" while you learn.
Where it goes wrong
If you ask ChatGPT for code, you have to copy it and paste it into the right files yourself. That's where beginners make mistakes: the wrong file, half the code, two versions fighting each other. It also fills gaps with guesses. Ask it for "a website for a chop bar" and it will invent opening hours, prices and a story, all of them wrong.
03Cursor: your building site
Cursor is a code editor, the program where your website's files live, with an AI assistant built in. Unlike a chat in the browser, it can read your whole project and create and edit files for you.
It has different modes: some change your files, some only read and answer. Picking the right one for the moment matters more than which AI model you choose.
Where it goes wrong
Cursor sometimes changes things you didn't ask for, or changes them badly. Ask it a question in the wrong mode and it may decide to "fix" something that wasn't broken. Vague requests get vague results, and on the free plan every message uses part of a limited allowance, so ten unclear prompts cost you more than one good one.
Plan where changing your mind is cheap. Build where the AI can see your files.
04Where Claude fits
Claude is an AI assistant made by a company called Anthropic. Like ChatGPT, you can chat with it in a browser or app, so it can sit in the same "architect's desk" seat: planning, drafting, explaining. Since Cursor's plans changed in October 2026, Claude models in Cursor need the Premium plan or higher (US$30 a month at the time of writing) and are paid for at Anthropic's prices. The free plan uses Cursor's own models, which are enough to start.
A few practical points:
- Pick one chat assistant for planning and stick with it for a project. Switching halfway means re-explaining everything.
- The course teaches with ChatGPT, including its image making. If you plan in Claude instead, check how you'll make your images before you start.
- Never paste in passwords, secret keys or customers' private details, whichever tool you use.
05What always stays your job
AI is brilliant at common things like menus, forms and layouts. It doesn't know your business unless you tell it, it can sound confident when it's wrong, and it can't judge taste. Some jobs always stay yours: deciding what to build, giving the AI the facts, checking the result on a phone and a laptop, saving your progress, protecting secrets and data, and approving anything that costs money or can't be undone.
06Free plans and their limits
You can start with the free plans of all three. Each has limits on how much you can use it. A paid plan is optional, and the course works either way.
Tools change fast. Plan names, limits and buttons move every few months. When something looks different from a guide, look for the same words rather than the same layout, and check the tool's own help pages.
07Learn the method step by step
Module 2 of the course, The Prompt System, is the part this guide leaves out: the five prompt levels, the website brief, the technique that gets ChatGPT to write that brief with you, how the plan is handed to Cursor, which mode to use when, and the build loop, with copy-paste prompts for every step. Watch Module 0 free to see how the course teaches, then get the course and build something real.
This guide comes from Module 2 of the course. The full course is GHS 399 ($40), paid once and yours to keep. Module 0 is free.