VS Code Alternatives
Visual Studio Code is a cross-platform, extension-driven code editor with IntelliSense-style completion plus integrated Git and debugging workflows. Users praise its versatility and ease of use for many programming workflows, though some complain it can feel resource-intensive and may get slower over time, especially after updates.
VSCodium tops the rankings as a fully open-source build of Code - OSS that removes telemetry while keeping most VS Code functionality and extensibility. Privacy-focused developers who want a VS Code-like experience often choose VSCodium specifically to avoid telemetry, though some Microsoft extensions may be unavailable. Sublime Text ranks second and is repeatedly praised for outstanding speed and being less resource-intensive than VS Code, making it popular with developers on slower machines or large projects.
The alternatives landscape spans lightweight text editors like Vim and Notepad++ to newer AI-first editors like Zed Editor, with over 100 alternatives covering code editors, full IDEs, and terminal-based editors.
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Visual Studio Code is a code editor, but the alternatives span different approaches to development workflows. Open source options like VSCodium, Vim, and GNU Emacs appeal to users who want transparent licensing and community-driven tooling. For privacy-focused development, VSCodium and Helix emphasize no-tracking and telemetry prevention features.
Linux users have native options in VSCodium, Kate, and Lapce. Web-based development suits users who want browser-based environments - Replit and Firebase Studio run online for coding without local setup. For developers who live in the terminal, Micro, Neovim, and Helix target command-line workflows useful for SSH-heavy or low-overhead environments.
Alternatives list
A programming editor for DOS environments. More specifically, it is something that looks like a programming editor for DOS environments.
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Notepad-like VB.Net multi-tab source code editor for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 that supports ASM, ASP.Net, Boo, C#, C++, CSS, HTML, INI, Java, JavaScript, Lua, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, SQL, VB.Net, XML and plain text files.
Simple, Flexible, Powerful Text Editor for the Web. Handles most common features you want; code completion, saved snippets, subversion support, remote connections, extensible language support, browser preview and much more.
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NoteTab is a leading text editor, popular Windows Notepad replacement, and powerful code-based HTML editor for Windows.
Yi is a text editor written, and extensible in, the Haskell programming language. It can be made to behave like emacs or like vi.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source
Application types
Alerts
- Discontinued
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
TEA is free text editor for Linux, *BSD, OS/2, Windows, Haicu. It depends on Qt 4.6+ or Qt 5 or Qt6, zlib and, optionally, on Aspell or Hunspell. The old (but renewed) branch, TEA-GTK depends on GTK+ 3 and GtkSourceView 3.
LopeEdit is a powerful programmers editor and a replacement of Windows Notepad. It has tabs to select between open files, supports syntax highlighting of multiple programing languages (C/C++, Java, JavaScript, Visual Basic, VBScript, XML, HTML, ASP, JSP, SQL, Cobol, C#, CSS...
Cost / License
- Freemium (Pay once)
- Proprietary
Application types
Alerts
- Bundleware
Platforms
- Windows
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source
Platforms
- Online
Jane is Just Another Nasty Editor, designed to view and edit all kind of ASCII files. There are millions of similar editors already available, but the choice is yours: those who try this might discover nice features they'll soon don't want to miss anymore.
IT-Edit (Integrated Terminal Editor) provide a text editor with syntax highlight, line numbering and with the basics text editing functionalities, a file managing interface and terminals in the same window as the editor.
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