Code Editors

4 open source tools compared. Sorted by stars — scroll down for our analysis.

Tool	Stars	Velocity	Language	License	Score
VS Code Visual Studio Code	183.2k	—	TypeScript	MIT License	82
Neovim Vim-fork focused on extensibility	97.5k	—	Vim Script	Apache License 2.0 + Vim License	82
Zed High-performance multiplayer code editor	78.1k	—	Rust	Zed License (source-available)	72
Lapce Lightning-fast code editor in Rust	38.2k	+53/wk	Rust	Apache License 2.0	79

Our Analysis

VS Code183.2k★

If you write code and want an editor that works immediately — autocomplete, debugging, Git integration, extensions for any language — VS Code is the default. Over 70% of developers use it. It's the editor you don't have to justify choosing. 183K stars, MIT licensed source code (the binary distribution has Microsoft's telemetry and license), TypeScript. The extension marketplace has over 40,000 extensions: language support, themes, debuggers, AI assistants, database clients, container tools. Built-in terminal, built-in Git, built-in debugging for most languages. Completely free. The editor, every extension in the marketplace, the web version at vscode.dev — all free. Microsoft makes money from Azure and GitHub integrations, not from VS Code itself. Solo through enterprise: free at every scale. Settings Sync keeps your setup consistent across machines. Remote development extensions let you code on a server or inside a container from your local machine. Live Share does real-time collaboration. The catch: it's an Electron app — a web browser pretending to be a desktop app. On older machines, it uses noticeable RAM (500MB-1GB+). With many extensions loaded, it gets sluggish. The Microsoft telemetry in the official binary bothers some people — VSCodium is a community build without it. And if you want a terminal-native, keyboard-driven workflow, Neovim or Zed will feel faster and lighter.

Neovim97.5k★

If you spend your day editing code and want an editor that bends completely to your will, Neovim is a modernized fork of Vim — the terminal-based text editor that's been around since the early 90s. It runs in your terminal, it's keyboard-driven, and once you learn the keybindings, you edit text faster than any mouse-based workflow. 97K stars, incredibly active community, written primarily in C with Vim Script and Lua for configuration. The big upgrade over classic Vim: first-class Lua scripting, built-in LSP (Language Server Protocol — the thing that gives you autocomplete and go-to-definition), tree-sitter for syntax highlighting, and an async architecture that doesn't freeze when plugins do heavy work. Everything is free. No paid tier, no cloud version, no premium plugins. The plugin ecosystem is enormous — telescope.nvim for fuzzy finding, lazy.nvim for plugin management, nvim-lspconfig for language servers. You can turn it into a full IDE. Solo developers through large teams — free at every level. Many developers use it as their primary editor inside VS Code via extensions, so you don't even have to go full terminal. The catch: the learning curve is brutal. If you've never used Vim-style keybindings, expect a week of productivity loss before you get faster. And configuring Neovim properly — LSP, formatting, linting — takes hours of Lua tweaking. Tools like LazyVim and AstroNvim offer pre-configured setups, but you'll still need to customize. If you want an editor that works out of the box, VS Code is the answer.

Zed78.1k★

If you want a code editor that opens instantly and stays fast no matter how large your project — Zed is built from scratch in Rust to be that. It's not an Electron app wrapping a browser. Every pixel is GPU-rendered, and it shows. Files open immediately. Scrolling is butter. Search across 100K files feels instant. 78K stars, built by the team that created Atom (GitHub's previous editor). Real-time multiplayer editing is built in — share a workspace and code together with zero setup. AI assistant integration with Claude, GPT-4, and local models via Ollama. The editor itself is free and open source. Zed offers a paid tier for team collaboration features — Zed Channels with persistent voice, screen sharing, and shared project hosting. Pricing for the pro tier isn't publicly fixed yet (still evolving as of early 2026). Solo developers: free, and genuinely the fastest editor available. The extension ecosystem is growing but still small compared to VS Code — check that your language server and key extensions exist before switching. Small teams: the multiplayer editing is legitimately good for pair programming. Larger teams: evaluate whether the extension gap matters for your stack. The catch: the extension ecosystem is the real blocker. VS Code has 40,000+ extensions. Zed has hundreds. If you depend on specific VS Code extensions for your workflow — Docker integration, specific debuggers, niche language support — check before you switch. The editor is great. The ecosystem isn't there yet.

Lapce38.2k★

A code editor built from scratch in Rust, designed to be as fast as your terminal. If you've ever felt VS Code getting sluggish on a large project — slow file opens, laggy autocomplete, high memory usage — Lapce is built specifically to solve that. It uses a modal editing mode (like Vim) by default but works fine with standard editing too. The architecture is genuinely different: the editor runs a native GPU-rendered UI (not Electron, not a web view), and offloads heavy work like syntax parsing and code intelligence to a separate process. The result is an editor that opens instantly and stays responsive even on large codebases. It's completely free and open source under Apache 2.0. No paid tier, no telemetry, no extension marketplace fees. Plugin support exists but the ecosystem is still young compared to VS Code's 40,000+ extensions. The catch: it's still in active development and not yet at 1.0. Expect rough edges — some language servers don't work perfectly, the settings UI is minimal, and the plugin ecosystem is thin. If you depend on specific VS Code extensions for your workflow, Lapce probably can't replace them yet. But if raw speed matters to you and you're comfortable with a less polished experience, it's worth watching. Zed is the closest competitor — also Rust-based, GPU-rendered, and focused on performance. Neovim is the other obvious choice if you want maximum speed and don't mind terminal-only.