VSCodium icon
VSCodium icon

VSCodium

 343 likes

This repository contains a build file to generate FLOSS release binaries of Microsoft's Visual Studio Code - Open Source ("Code - OSS") project, the open source core of the proprietary Visual Studio Code.

VSCodium screenshot 1

License model

  • FreeOpen Source

Application types

Platforms

  • Mac
  • Windows
  • Linux  64-bit only
  • Flathub
  • Electron
4.7 / 5 Avg rating (45)
343likes
22comments
0news articles

Features

Suggest and vote on features

Properties

  1.  Customizable
  2.  Privacy focused
  3.  Support for Themes
  4.  Lightweight
  5.  Clean design
  6.  Distraction-free

Features

  1.  No Tracking
  2.  Prevent telemetry
  3.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
  4.  Works Offline
  5.  No registration required
  6.  Autocompletion
  7.  MIT License
  8.  Dark Mode
  9. Git icon  Git integration
  10.  Syntax Highlighting
  11.  Ad-free
  12.  Minimap
  13.  Built-in terminal emulation
  14. Git icon  Git Support
  15.  Code Formatting
  16.  Support for MarkDown
  17.  Code navigation
  18.  Color coding
  19.  Support for Javascript
  20.  Code Completion
  21.  Live Preview
  22.  C++
  23.  Automatic Indentation
  24.  Support for Bootstrap
  25.  File Versioning
  26.  Objective-c
  27.  Full-Text Search
  28.  Spell Checking
  29.  WYSIWYG Support
  30.  Command line interface
  31.  Batch Editing
  32.  Support for scripting
  33.  Portable
  34.  WYSIWYG HTML Editor
  35.  Cloud Sync
  36. LaTeX icon  Support for LaTeX
  37.  Support for 64 bit
  38.  Embedded debugger
  39.  PHP IDE
  40.  Multiple Cursors
  41.  Specific for 64-Bit

VSCodium News & Activities

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Recent activities

  • miinty, T0mmaso and pkay5198 liked VSCodium
    3 days ago
  • mewthree reviewed VSCodium  
    5 days ago

    Very powerful but at the end of the day it's just clunky and the interface has way too much going on and adding extensions is honestly kind of a pain... (Microsoft and the devs behind forking VSCODE to VSCodium Could learn a thing or two from sublime text's extension integration and management)

    Still it is indeed open source so it's pretty good for that matter..... To me it was the best open source code editor for Windows until I discovered CudaText - Which is better in every way shape and...

  • Guest does not think WYSIWYG Support is a important feature of VSCodium
    10 days ago
  • Gaja, RKitSeal, haloscythe and bannert1337 liked VSCodium
    18 days ago
  • Eighty-nine liked VSCodium
    about 1 month ago
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VSCodium information

  • Developed by

    VSCodium
  • Licensing

    Open Source (MIT) and Free product.
  • Rating

    Average rating of 4.7 (45 ratings)
  • Alternatives

    195 alternatives listed
  • Supported Languages

    • English

AlternativeTo Categories

DevelopmentOffice & ProductivitySecurity & PrivacyOS & Utilities

GitHub repository

  •  27,004 Stars
  •  1,241 Forks
  •  133 Open Issues
  •   Updated Apr 15, 2025 
View on GitHub

Our users have written 22 comments and reviews about VSCodium, and it has gotten 343 likes

VSCodium was added to AlternativeTo by Paul on Oct 12, 2018 and this page was last updated Dec 2, 2024.

Comments and Reviews

   
 Post comment/review
Comment summary: VSCodium is praised for being a fully open-source alternative to Visual Studio Code, eliminating telemetry and privacy concerns associated with Microsoft's version. Users appreciate its powerful features, flexibility, and regular updates, while some highlight its compatibility issues with certain features available in VS Code. However, for those concerned about privacy, VSCodium offers a compelling choice. A few users mention the lack of a native marketplace but note available workarounds.
Top Positive Comment
Seän Shepherd
Jan 1, 2020
22

It's Visual Studio Code, but even more FOSSy! It also features some other slight differences:

  • VSCodium has its own custom-designed branding (logos, etc.), thus avoiding the use of proprietary branding, and remaining truly Open (no offense to Microsoft--VS Code is a solid application, or else VSCodium wouldn't have been born.)
  • There is no telemetry data collected from users of VSCodium. Personally, I don't care about telemetry for the most part. As a fellow software engineer, I realize just how valuable it can be in stopping bugs, maintaining stability and being able to build and improve upon what you have already built. But many people don't like any telemetry whatsoever, however anonymous, and that's not a bad thing. It's a matter of taste. :)

[Edited by Szubxero, June 24]

JohnDangerbrooks
Apr 12, 2021

It was a fair review, not a blind one, except you forgot to mention that VSCodium has broken the extensions marketplace part. That's all I care about in Visual Studio Code. I personally don't care about being "more FOSSy". What does that even mean in practice?

However, the main philosophy behind the existence of VSCodium is to propagate the malicious belief that Visual Studio Code's telemetry toggle switch is broken. This is a big red line for me. My philosophy is "do no evil."

peteralternativeto
Feb 1, 2022

Only Microsoft products can use and connect to Microsoft’s Extension Marketplace. The terms of use for the Marketplace prevent any non-Visual Studio products from accessing it. So VSCodium can't legally access the marketplace, it's a proprietary feature! In the long run it's better to work on establishing an independent and free marketplace for VS Code extensions like https://open-vsx.org/

mewthree
Apr 17, 2025
0

Very powerful but at the end of the day it's just clunky and the interface has way too much going on and adding extensions is honestly kind of a pain... (Microsoft and the devs behind forking VSCODE to VSCodium Could learn a thing or two from sublime text's extension integration and management)

Still it is indeed open source so it's pretty good for that matter..... To me it was the best open source code editor for Windows until I discovered CudaText - Which is better in every way shape and form, And not even close to being process heavy.

Elemental Tec
Feb 25, 2025
0

Privacy-Focused, lightweight and fast, with a limited Extension Marketplace. I've been using it for about a year now (Linux) and it has worked as expected most of the time.

Maretheyu606
Oct 28, 2024
0

It's VScode, but entirely 100% FOSS without any bloat or telemetry from Microsoft. It's perfect, and so nice! The only downside is that it uses Electron instead of something like Tauri.

Max Fisher
Sep 15, 2024
0

IDK much about security issues but it seems like to me that it's not OK when you install this snap with "--classic" flag. I hope someone who knows this prove me wrong.

Shaz Shah
May 31, 2024
0

I really do like VSCode, but like VSCodium much more as it cuts out all telemetry. It is worth noting that there is a separate marketplace for VSCodium extensions. The usual VScode marketplace will not recognise this app. It's not a big deal for me.

Coming from Sublime Text, I do find VSCodium to be a bit busier in the UI. But it's FOSS and regularly updated.

Paul
Nov 10, 2023
2

My code editor of choice! It's as powerful as Visual Studio Code (all the features and extensions, etc.), but it has its own logo, and most importantly, it doesn't collect any telemetry data!

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7 of 22 comments

What is VSCodium?

This repository contains a build file to generate FLOSS release binaries of Microsoft's Visual Studio Code - Open Source ("Code - OSS") project, the open source core of the proprietary Visual Studio Code icon Visual Studio Code.

Microsoft's downloads of Visual Studio Code are licensed under this not-FLOSS license and contain telemetry/tracking. According to this comment from a Visual Studio Code maintainer:

When we [Microsoft] 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.

When you clone and build from the vscode repo, none of these endpoints are configured in the default product.json. Therefore, you generate a "clean" build, without the Microsoft customizations, which is by default licensed under the MIT license This repo exists so that you don't have to download+build from source. The build scripts in this repo clone Microsoft's vscode repo, run the build commands, and upload the resulting binaries to GitHub releases. These binaries are licensed under the MIT license. Telemetry is enabled by a build flag which we do not pass.

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