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.
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.
A powerful IDE for data science, Zasper excels with massive concurrency support, enabling numerous simultaneous connections, minimal memory usage, and speedy performance. Suited for REPL-style data apps like Jupyter notebooks, fully supported on Mac with limited Linux support.
UltraEdit is the ideal text, HTML and HEX editor, and an advanced PHP, Perl, Java and JavaScript editor for programmers. An industry-award winner, UltraEdit supports disk-based 64-bit file handling (standard) on 32-bit Windows platforms (Windows 2000 and later).
UltraEdit is the most popular commercial alternative to Visual Studio Code.
Acode is light weight yet powerful code editor and web IDE for android. You can use this editor for editing HTML, JavaScript, text.
PSPad is a freeware programmers editor in 8 languages for Microsoft Windows operating systems. Some features are highlighted syntax, ftp, projects and so on. Code explorer for Pascal, C/C++, INI, HTML, XML, PHP and more in development, internal web browser with APACHE support.
Squircle CE is a fast, lightweight code editor and file manager with support for over 30 programming languages, remote file access via SFTP/FTP(S) and Git VCS integration. Whether you're a student, hobbyist, or professional developer, Squircle CE lets you write, manage, and...
SciTE is a SCIntilla based Text Editor. Originally built to demonstrate Scintilla, it has grown to be a generally useful editor with facilities for building and running programs. It is best used for jobs with simple configurations - I use it for building test and demonstration...
Phoenix Code is a text editor designed to make coding as intuitive and fun as playing a video game - specially crafted for web developers, designers, and students.
Versatile Windows editor offering lightweight, ultra-fast performance with robust support for text, code, and CSV files, AI-assisted writing, macros, Unicode, plugins, syntax highlighting, advanced search, column editing, split views, and file encoding conversion.
Syntax Highlighting: Colorize more than 50 pre-installed major languages like HTML, PHP, Python, Ruby or Markdown. You can also create your own settings.
Trae Plugin is an AI-powered cloud-based IDE (Integrated Development Environment). The built-in AI Assistant and the out-of-the-box development environment let you focus more on the development of various projects.
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