Best Visual Studio Code Alternatives 2026
VS Code offers a customizable and versatile environment for coding, debugging, and version control, supporting diverse programming languages.
This editor provides features like IntelliSense, debugging, Git integration, and customizable themes. Its extension marketplace offers tools for various programming languages, making it adaptable to different development workflows. It is an excellent choice for both beginners and experienced developers.
Recent Reviews
"Visual Studio Code is my go-to IDE. The extensions ecosystem is incredibly rich, allowing me to customize my development..."
"I've been using VS Code for about two years for web development, and I'm generally very satisfied. The Git integration i..."
"VS Code has become essential for my data science work, especially with the Python extension. Jupyter Notebook integratio..."
Visual Studio Code
A lightweight but powerful source code editor with built-in support for many languages and a large extension ecosystem.
Platform Highlights
- Free and open-source
- Extensive extension marketplace
- Built-in Git integration
- Can become resource-intensive with many extensions
- Requires extensions for full language support
Based on 18,000+ creator reviews
Visual Studio Code Alternatives
Compare top code editors & ides platforms with detailed reviews and ratings
Sublime Text
A sophisticated text editor for code, markup, and prose. Known for its speed, ease of use and powerful features.
"Sublime Text is my go-to text editor for all my web development projects. Its speed and responsiveness are unmatched, ev..."
What users say about Visual Studio Code
Real experiences from our community of users who have tried Visual Studio Code and its alternatives.
Visual Studio Code is my go-to IDE. The extensions ecosystem is incredibly rich, allowing me to customize my development environment exactly how I need it. I particularly appreciate the built-in terminal and debugging tools, which streamline my workflow significantly. The frequent updates and active community make it a winner!
I've been using VS Code for about two years for web development, and I'm generally very satisfied. The Git integration is fantastic, and the IntelliSense feature saves me a lot of time. While the initial setup can be a bit overwhelming with all the available extensions, it's worth the effort to tailor it to your needs. Occasionally experiences minor performance slowdowns with very large projects.
VS Code has become essential for my data science work, especially with the Python extension. Jupyter Notebook integration is seamless, making it easy to prototype and experiment. The debugging capabilities are excellent for troubleshooting complex algorithms. Compared to other IDEs I've used, VS Code feels much more lightweight and responsive, which improves my productivity.
I love the simplicity and customizability of VS Code. I can easily create a workspace optimized for my specific frontend projects. Live Share is an awesome feature for collaborating with team members in real-time. I would love to see improved support for certain older JavaScript frameworks, but overall, it's a fantastic tool for modern web development.
VS Code is pretty good, but can be a bit sluggish when dealing with really large backend projects written in Java. The extension ecosystem is vast, but sometimes it feels like there are too many choices, and it can be difficult to find the best extension for a specific task. Debugging tools are robust and the Git integration is a huge plus. The overall performance could be improved in some scenarios.
For full-stack development, VS Code provides a unified environment that's hard to beat. Whether I'm working on the frontend with React or the backend with Node.js, everything is integrated seamlessly. The integrated terminal is invaluable, and the ability to run and debug code directly within the editor saves me considerable time. I especially love the code completion features.
As a DevOps engineer, I use VS Code primarily for editing configuration files and scripts. It works remarkably well with YAML, JSON, and other common DevOps formats. The support for extensions like Docker and Kubernetes makes it incredibly convenient for managing containerized applications. I find the integrated terminal and remote SSH capabilities particularly useful for working with remote servers. Its speed and reliability make it my go-to editor.