Code Editors

7 open source tools compared. Sorted by stars. Scroll down for our analysis.

Tool	Stars	Velocity	Language	License	Score
VS Code Visual Studio Code	184.9k	+231/wk	TypeScript	MIT License	86
Neovim Vim-fork focused on extensibility	99.6k	+178/wk	Vim Script	Apache License 2.0 + Vim License	84
Zed High-performance multiplayer code editor	82.7k	+667/wk	Rust	Zed License (source-available)	74
Lapce Lightning-fast code editor in Rust	38.4k	+24/wk	Rust	Apache License 2.0	83
vim-lsp async language server protocol plugin for vim and neovim	3.4k	+3/wk	Vim Script	MIT License	71
qt-creator A cross-platform Qt IDE	3.0k	+4/wk	C++	GPL-3.0 with Qt Exception	64
phoenix The text editor designed to make coding as simple and fun as playing a video game	2.9k	+1/wk	JavaScript	GNU Affero General Public License v3.0	63

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Our Analysis

VS Code184.9k★

VS Code is the default code editor: editing, debugging, Git integration, extensions for any language. Over 70% of developers use it. It's the editor you don't have to justify choosing. 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.

Neovim99.6k★

Neovim is a modernized fork of Vim that bends completely to your will. It runs in your terminal, it's keyboard-driven, and once you learn the keybindings, you edit text faster than any mouse-based workflow. 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.

Zed82.7k★

Zed is built from scratch in Rust to be the fastest code editor available. 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. 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 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.

Lapce38.4k★

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 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. 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. 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. 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.

vim-lsp3.4k★

Vim-lsp is a lightweight Language Server Protocol client for Vim. It connects your editor to language servers for autocompletion, go-to-definition, hover docs, diagnostics, and code actions in any language that has an LSP server (TypeScript, Python, Rust, Go, C++, and dozens more). It is async (won't freeze your editor), works with both Vim and Neovim, and has no external dependencies beyond Vim 8+ or Neovim. Pure Vimscript. Setup means installing a language server for each language you use, then adding a few lines to your vimrc telling vim-lsp where to find it. Pair it with vim-lsp-settings for automatic server installation and configuration. The catch: stable but niche. The Neovim ecosystem has moved toward built-in LSP support (nvim-lspconfig), which makes vim-lsp more relevant for classic Vim users who want LSP without switching editors. Configuration is manual unless you add helper plugins, and the Vimscript implementation is slower than Lua-based alternatives on Neovim.

qt-creator3.0k★

Qt Creator is the purpose-built IDE for the Qt framework. Developers building cross-platform desktop, embedded, or mobile apps with C++ and QML already know this is the purpose-built tool for the job. Full code completion via Clang, integrated debugger, visual UI designer, profiler, and one-click deployment to desktop, embedded, iOS, and Android targets. The IDE itself is GPL-3.0 (free to use). Pre-built binaries from qt.io work out of the box. Building from source requires Qt 6.8+, CMake, Ninja, and optionally LLVM, which is not trivial but rarely necessary. It is a desktop application, not something you host. For Qt developers: there is nothing better. The integration with Qt libraries, build systems (CMake, qmake, Meson), and remote device deployment is tighter than anything VS Code plugins can offer. General C++ developers can use it too, though VS Code or CLion may be more flexible outside the Qt ecosystem. The catch: the IDE is free but the Qt framework has commercial licensing for closed-source products. Shipping proprietary software means either complying with (L)GPL or buying a Qt commercial license. The IDE is only truly valuable if you are already in the Qt ecosystem.

phoenix2.9k★

Phoenix is a browser-based code editor built on Adobe's discontinued Brackets. It runs from a static web server, keeps full Brackets extension compatibility, and is positioned for web development specifically. AGPL-3.0, free. No installer; it's a webapp. That means you can run it anywhere a browser runs, including locked-down corporate machines that won't let you install VS Code. The trade-off is that an uncompromised local development experience without complex build steps is the explicit goal, so it's lighter than VS Code by design. Pick this if you teach web development, work in restricted environments, or already have a Brackets workflow you want to keep alive. Solo: free, install nothing. Small teams: same. Large teams doing serious engineering: VS Code, Zed, or Cursor are still better picks. The catch: a browser-based editor is not a desktop IDE. No remote dev containers, no local file system access without an extension shim, no Copilot-grade integrations yet. Phoenix exists because Brackets shouldn't have died, not because the world needs another VS Code competitor.