Visual Studio Code icon
Visual Studio Code icon

Visual Studio Code

Free and extensible code editor with built-in Git support, smart IntelliSense, integrated debugger, 30,000+ extensions, works offline, supports markdown and syntax highlighting for numerous languages.

Visual Studio Code screenshot 1

Cost / License

  • Free
  • Proprietary

Application types

Platforms

  • Mac
  • Windows
  • Linux  64-bit only
  • Online  [https://vscode.dev/](https://vscode.dev/)
  • Chrome OS  Linux app support required or go to [https://vscode.dev/](https://vscode.dev/)
  • Snapcraft
4.2
Very Good79 reviews
1369likes
74comments

Features

Suggest and vote on features

Properties

  1.  Customizable
  2.  Support for Themes

Features

  1.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
  2.  Autocompletion
  3.  Built-in terminal emulation
  4.  Syntax Highlighting
  5.  Code Completion
  6.  Multiple languages
  7. GitHub icon  GitHub Integration
  8. Git icon  Git Support
  9.  Supports Python
  10.  Dark Mode
  11.  C++
  12.  Multiple Cursors
  13.  Auto Update
  14.  Graphical User Interface
  15.  Support for MarkDown
  16.  WYSIWYG HTML Editor
  17.  Plug-ins
  18.  Support for Javascript
  19. Node.js icon  Support for Node.js
  20.  Theme Customization
  21.  PHP IDE
  22.  Minimap
  23.  Remote Debugging
  24. Git icon  Git integration
  25.  C# Scripting
  26.  Works Offline
  27.  Ad-free
  28.  Live Preview
  29.  WYSIWYG Support
  30.  No registration required
  31.  Code Formatting
  32.  C support
  33.  Ruby support
  34.  Lint support
  35.  Code navigation
  36.  Embedded debugger
  37.  Specific for 64-Bit
  38.  Support for 64 bit
  39.  Custom Plugins
  40. GitHub Copilot icon  GitHub Copilot Integration
  41.  Electron based
  42.  Run Android Apps on Desktop
  43.  Mercurial support
  44.  Objective-c

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Comments and Reviews

   
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Comment summary: Visual Studio Code is praised for its versatility, ease of use, and extensive plugin support, making it a popular choice among programmers. It excels in language support, especially for JavaScript and TypeScript, and integrates well with Git and debugging tools. However, some users find it resource-intensive, becoming slower with updates. Concerns are also raised about its proprietary components despite being advertised as open-source. Overall, it's considered highly customizable and efficient for cross-platform development.
Top Positive Comment
denissherstennikov
19

Faster then atom. Fresher then notepad++. Freer then sublime text.

JohnDangerbrooks

And more extensible than all three.

petrovnn2

Fast, intuitive, extensible

Top Negative Comment
Nonononoki
34

It is actually NOT open source. Its base is open source, you have to compile it yourself since the binary you can download on the official page was actually MODIFIED and under a proprietary license! It's like the relationship between Chrome and Chromium, except that Google NEVER even tried to call the Chrome "open source", but Microsoft indeed does.

The name for the open source application is actually called "Code - OSS Dev".

dany111

Actually, VSCode developers says that "The cool thing about all of this is that you have the choice to use the Visual Studio Code branded product under our license or you can build a version of the tool straight from the vscode repository, under the MIT license. Here's how it works. When you build from the vscode repository, you can configure the resulting tool by customizing the product.json file. This file controls things like the Gallery endpoints, “Send-a-Smile” endpoints, telemetry endpoints, logos, names, and more. When we build Visual Studio Code, we do exactly this. We clone the vscode repository, we lay down a customized product.json that has Microsoft specific functionality (telemetry, gallery, logo, etc.), and then produce a build that we release under our license." They seems to be light and reversible customizations.

[Edited by dany111, December 18] https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/60

Things seem to be more complex. See: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/31168#issuecomment-317319063 https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/blob/master/DOCS.md#proprietary-debugging-tools https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/49159

[Edited by dany111, June 14]

JohnDangerbrooks

One of the tenets of the FOSS philosophy is that you can create derivative works from a FOSS product for whatever purpose, including commercial. Now Microsoft has done exactly that: It has created branded binaries from its own FOSS code. And there is a good reason behind that; they need to protect their customers against backspaceware. (The same goes for the popular Google Chrome.)

The Text Tool
0

It's one of the finest software out there, a necessity for every developer.

Juri
0

Its great, but as its not really opensource and has trackers i prefer VScodium.

Kumex Ali
0

I love it the best IDE i ever had i can find every tools and extentions with an easy search i do all of my jobs on it

Review by a new / low-activity user.
George Jefferson
0

Speedy and straightforward text editor packed with useful features right from the start. I jumped on the Sublime Text bandwagon back in 2015, and it's been an absolute pleasure to work with. Since its early beta days, Sublime Text has seen consistent monthly updates bringing fresh capabilities to the table. They're really good about listening to user suggestions for improvements, and anyone can pitch in to help make it better. The one thing holding me back from calling it my personal favorite editor is how it handles merge conflicts - it could really learn a thing or two from Visual Studio's more sophisticated approach to resolving git issues.

j0
0

Slow and bloated for what it is (a text editor). Missing incredibly basic features such as sorting lines and prettifying JSON files. Setting it up is an exercise in installing a huge number of extensions.

This is good for changing an odd file but I would recommend other text editors such as Sublime Text or Notepad++, or full IDEs such as Jetbrains products.

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What is Visual Studio Code?

Visual Studio Code is a free and extensible code editor for building web, desktop, and mobile applications, using any programming language and framework.

Visual Studio Code has built-in support for Git source control management and powerful integrations with GitHub, an integrated debugger, and smart code completion with IntelliSense and with AI-driven IntelliCode. With over 30,000 extensions and themes in the Visual Studio Code Marketplace, you can customize the features and the look of Visual Studio Code to fit your needs, preferences, and style.

You can use Visual Studio Code to build any kind of app, for web, desktop, and mobile. Visual Studio Code supports JavaScript and TypeScript natively and offers extensions for coding in languages such as Python, Java, C/C++, C#, Go, Rust, PHP, and many more.

Known as VS-Code amongst the community, it is one of the most popular code editors and has a browser version which can be immediately accessed by going to vscode.dev.

Official Links

Visual Studio Code information

AlternativeTo Categories

DevelopmentOffice & ProductivityOS & Utilities

GitHub repository

  •  167,636 Stars
  •  30,663 Forks
  •  9178 Open Issues
  •   Updated  

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Our users have written 74 comments and reviews about Visual Studio Code, and it has gotten 1369 likes

Visual Studio Code was added to AlternativeTo by CrypticCube on and this page was last updated . Visual Studio Code is sometimes referred to as Code, VSC, VSCode