VSCodium icon
VSCodium icon

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.

VSCodium screenshot 1

Cost / License

  • Free
  • Open Source (MIT)

Application type

Platforms

  • Mac
  • Windows
  • Linux  64-bit only
  • Flathub
  • Electron
  • Snapcraft
  • Homebrew
  • Chocolatey
VSCodium alternatives  
454likes
224alternatives
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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.  Dark Mode
  7. Git icon  Git integration
  8.  Syntax Highlighting
  9.  Autocompletion
  10.  Ad-free
  11.  Minimap
  12. Git icon  Git Support
  13.  MIT License
  14.  Built-in terminal emulation
  15.  Color coding
  16.  Code Completion
  17.  Support for MarkDown
  18.  Support for Javascript
  19.  Code navigation
  20.  Code Formatting
  21.  Live Preview
  22.  Automatic Indentation
  23.  C++
  24.  File Versioning
  25.  Support for Bootstrap
  26.  Objective-c
  27.  Spell Checking
  28.  Command line interface
  29.  WYSIWYG Support
  30.  Full-Text Search
  31.  Batch Editing
  32.  Support for scripting
  33.  Cloud Sync
  34.  WYSIWYG HTML Editor
  35.  Portable
  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

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Comments and Reviews

   
Comment summary: VSCodium is widely viewed as a privacy-focused, open-source build of Visual Studio Code, retaining its editor, Git integration, debugging, customization, and extension ecosystem while removing Microsoft branding and telemetry. Users praise its frequent updates and performance, but some report missing or delayed features, a separate and more limited extension marketplace, a busy interface, and Electron overhead. One user also questions its telemetry-free claim.
Top Positive Comment
Seän Shepherd
24

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
Replying to @Seän Shepherd

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
Replying to @Seän Shepherd

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/

uhada
0

VSCode is great, but AI "corrects" code when pressing space despite having deactivated Copilot, and all that. VSCodium deactivates Microsoft and (thus) AI, so problem seems solved.

cum
0
cum at cum

wow i can finally use vscode thanks to my open-source homies. 5 stars.

Petri Niemelä
-5

Worst fxcking sxit i ever uset.... If i could sue i would sue.. Its not even a genuine Google app.. Its a april fools joke... It deleted my deleted my 12tb tb disk... Messed up my c:\ drive.. filled my onedrive... Found 11 different download maps when i used to have 1... Do me sideways in.... mmmm.

cum
cum at cum
Replying to @Petri Niemelä

are you drunk

Review from a new or low-activity account — shown here, but not counted in the app rating.
lmde
1

I wonder if anybody really assessed the "telemetry free" claim. A simple port monitor like TcpView will show you that VSCodium connects stably to Github (a Microsoft site) and exchanges some kind of data, periodically, till it is open. That happens even disabling updates, announcements, and all of the extensions. I asked for a clarification to developers, without any answer. Free from telemetry? It's your call.

cum
cum at cum
Replying to @lmde

ha... thanks for pointing out that. i wasn't aware.

akselaeration
Replying to @lmde

Set up Cursor, NOT GitHub, no GitHub anymore.Peace. (Free Cursor, no problem)

Review from a new or low-activity account — shown here, but not counted in the app rating.
mewthree
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.

Review from a new or low-activity account — shown here, but not counted in the app rating.
Elemental Tec
1

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.

7 of 26 comments

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Official Links

AppStores & Other Links

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.

VSCodium information

  • Developed by

    Baptiste Augrain

  • Licensing

    Open Source (MIT) and Free product.

  • Rating

    Average rating of 4.8 (36 ratings)

  • Alternatives

    224 alternatives listed

  • Badge

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  • Supported Languages

    • English

AlternativeTo Categories

Development, Office & Productivity, OS & Utilities, Security & Privacy

GitHub repository

  •  33,445 Stars
  •  1,875 Forks
  •  154 Open Issues
  •   Updated  
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Our users have written 26 comments and reviews about VSCodium, and it has gotten 454 likes

VSCodium was added to AlternativeTo by Paul on and this page was last updated .