Best Code Editors for Visual Studio Code

Windsurf is a cutting-edge IDE designed for developers to maintain focus and productivity through AI-driven assistance. At the heart of the platform is Cascade, an intelligent agent that not only fixes bugs and errors but also anticipates potential issues before they arise. With built-in features for real-time code previews, automatic linting, and seamless integrations with popular tools like GitHub and Slack, Windsurf streamlines the development process. Developers can also benefit from memory tracking, which helps Cascade recall past work, and smart suggestions that enhance code optimization. Windsurf’s unique capabilities ensure that developers can work faster and smarter, reducing onboarding time and accelerating project delivery.

Atom is a modern text editor tailored for the 21st century, developed on the Electron framework, and inspired by the features that we cherish in our preferred editing tools. It has been crafted to offer extensive customization options while remaining user-friendly with its default settings. As a vital component of a developer's toolkit, a text editor often collaborates with other tools rather than functioning in isolation. With the integrated GitHub package, you can seamlessly manage your Git and GitHub workflows directly in Atom—creating branches, staging and committing changes, pushing and pulling updates, resolving merge conflicts, and reviewing pull requests, all from within the editor. This package comes pre-installed with Atom, meaning you can start right away! Atom is compatible with various operating systems, including OS X, Windows, and Linux, ensuring a wide accessibility. You can easily search for and install new packages or even develop your own straight from the editor. Additionally, Atom enhances your coding efficiency with its intelligent and adaptable autocomplete feature, and it allows you to conveniently browse and open individual files, entire projects, or multiple projects simultaneously within a single window, making it a versatile choice for developers. Overall, Atom is designed to make coding smoother and more efficient, catering to both novice and experienced developers alike.

Supermaven enables you to code at twice the speed with the help of artificial intelligence. You can engage in discussions with various advanced models like GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and GPT-4, among others. Hotkeys make it easy to instantly view differences, implement changes, begin conversations, and toggle between different models. It's simple to attach files you've recently modified to your messages, as Supermaven Chat connects the model's code suggestions to your original code, allowing for easy comparison and updates. Additionally, you can rectify mistakes effortlessly by uploading your code along with compiler error messages with just one click, streamlining the debugging process significantly. This seamless integration of features makes coding not only faster but also more efficient.

CodeSandbox aims to make it easier for you to express your ideas with code, and to validate them. It also removes the hassles of setting up development tooling and sharing your project. Join us to help build the future of web coding. Over 4M developers use the platform each month. This includes organizations like Shopify and Atlassian. Since its launch, creators have created over 35M apps. It's used in thousands of open-source projects like React, Vue and Babel. You can invite your friends, colleagues, or team to join you or simply view your creation by using a URL. Use any of 1M+ packages for building real, powerful applications quickly and efficiently. Import and run repos directly from GitHub or choose from hundreds of templates to start in seconds. Boxy, CodeSandbox's AI-powered coding assistant, is now available to all Pro subscriptions.

Incorporating questions or generating code within the context of your codebase can yield precise outcomes, enhancing your work with specific folders, online documentation, terminal output, and files. PearAI enables direct coding in your projects while providing visibility into the differences through diffs. For instance, by using CMD+I (or CTRL+I on Windows), you can request PearAI's assistance in implementing error handling and adding comments. Remarkably, without writing any code ourselves, we successfully introduced a new feature to the unfamiliar codebase by creating a documentation page for the PearAI landing site. This approach can significantly accelerate your development process by integrating AI smoothly into your daily tasks. The primary aim of PearAI is to shorten the journey from concept to implementation. As coding remains an essential element of product development, we anticipate that advancements in AI will profoundly transform this landscape in the foreseeable future. Our mission is to cultivate an environment that embraces these transformative changes, addressing both immediate needs and future developments as they arise. As technology evolves, we aspire to keep pace with innovations that will reshape the way developers work and create.

Piny is an innovative visual editor tailored for developers utilizing frameworks such as Astro, React, Next.js, and Tailwind CSS, seamlessly integrating with IDEs like Visual Studio Code, Cursor, and Windsurf. This tool empowers users to visually modify code, navigate through components, and enhance styling without the need for extensive setup. Edits are executed directly within the codebase, allowing developers to retain complete oversight and control over their projects. Piny provides a range of robust free features for styling and project navigation without requiring any account creation. The Visual Tailwind Controls facilitate user-friendly styling by allowing users to click on elements, with real-time updates reflected in the code and automatic document saving ensuring hot reloads are triggered efficiently. Additionally, the Tailwind Class Inspector aids in organizing intricate styles through an editable tree representation of classes and states. Users can also modify Tailwind classes directly within strings, variables, and even in code outside of React or Astro environments, enhancing flexibility and usability. Overall, Piny stands out as a versatile tool that significantly streamlines the development process for modern web applications.

Void is a fork of VS Code that serves as an open-source AI code editor and an alternative to Cursor, designed to give developers enhanced AI support while ensuring complete data control. It facilitates smooth integration with various large language models, including DeepSeek, Llama, Qwen, Gemini, Claude, and Grok, allowing direct connections without relying on a private backend. Among its core functionalities are tab-triggered autocomplete, an inline quick edit feature, and a dynamic AI chat interface that supports standard chat, a restricted gather mode for read/search-only tasks, and an agent mode that automates operations involving files, folders, terminal commands, and MCP tools. Furthermore, Void provides exceptional performance capabilities, including rapid file application for documents containing thousands of lines, comprehensive checkpoint management for model updates, native tool execution, and the detection of lint errors. Developers can effortlessly migrate their themes, keybindings, and settings from VS Code with a single click and choose to host models either locally or in the cloud. This unique combination of features makes Void an attractive option for developers seeking powerful coding tools while maintaining data sovereignty.

The source code for Microsoft's Visual Studio Code (VSCode) is available as open source under the MIT license, yet the downloadable version of the product is subject to a different license that is not considered free and open-source software (FLOSS) and includes telemetry features. To provide an alternative, the VSCodium project was created, allowing users to avoid the hassle of downloading and building from the source code by offering pre-built binaries. This project utilizes specialized build scripts that fetch Microsoft's VSCode repository, execute the necessary build commands, and subsequently upload the finished binaries to GitHub releases, all of which are licensed under the MIT license and have telemetry features disabled. For users on Mac OS X Mojave, if you encounter the message “App can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software” when you first try to open VSCodium, you can simply right-click the application and select Open, which should only be necessary the first time you launch it on that operating system. Additionally, comprehensive documentation is available for anyone looking to transition from Visual Studio Code, as well as for addressing various issues that may arise during use of VSCodium. This ensures users have access to all the guidance they need for a smooth experience.

Harness the complete capabilities of Visual Studio Code, which encompasses the editor, terminal, debugger, version control, settings synchronization, and a vast array of extensions. You can seamlessly transition between working in your browser or on your desktop. Instantly create new development environments for any project size using prebuilt images, with GitHub’s impressive 35GB development image launching in under ten seconds. Expand your cloud virtual machines to accommodate up to 32 cores and 64GB of RAM for intensive tasks. Thanks to low-latency connections spanning four regions, you'll hardly notice it’s not running on your local machine. Preview modifications in the browser with immediate reloads thanks to websocket and HMR support, and collaborate effortlessly by sharing both private and public ports with your colleagues. Every technical aspect that matters to you can be finely tuned, supported by a personalized dotfiles repository for optimal configuration. Experience the perfect blend of versatility and performance that empowers developers to focus solely on their creativity.

Automate your time tracking. Automated time tracking will allow you to focus on what is important, while saving you time. Track and visualize all your projects. You can also export your data to connect with your timesheet and billing tools. Code Time is an analytics and time tracking plugin that provides detailed reports on your code time per project. Visualize all your projects, daily progress and work schedule in one place. Upgrade to simplify project billing and reporting. Export your data and have it packaged up by branch or project. You can create your own dashboards and reports using your favorite analytics tool. Software integrates with over 15 of the most popular IDEs and code editors. You can track your hours and generate reports directly from your code editor.

The leading open-source AI assistant. You can create custom autocomplete experiences and chats by connecting any models to any context. Remove the barriers that hinder productivity when developing software to remain in flow. Accelerate your development with a plug and play system that is easy to use and integrates into your entire stack. Set up your code assistant so that it can evolve with new capabilities. Continue autocompletes entire sections of code or single lines in any programming languages as you type. Ask questions about files, functions, the entire codebase and more by attaching code or context. Highlight code sections, then press the keyboard shortcut to convert code into natural language.

CotEditor is specifically designed for macOS and aligns perfectly with the expectations of macOS users. Its rapid launch time ensures that you can begin writing without delay whenever inspiration strikes. As an open-source project, CotEditor invites contributions from anyone interested in enhancing its capabilities. It supports syntax highlighting for over 50 popular programming languages, such as HTML, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Markdown, while also allowing users to create personalized settings. The interface enables you to split the window into several panes, facilitating the simultaneous view of various sections of your document. You can easily inspect the Unicode character data of any selected character, which is displayed conveniently in a popover. There is no need for complicated configuration files requiring technical expertise; all your settings, including syntax definitions and themes, can be managed through a straightforward preferences window. With CotEditor, the worry of losing unsaved changes is eliminated, as it automatically backs up your work during editing sessions. Additionally, it provides a feature to identify and list characters in your document that cannot be converted to the desired encoding, ensuring a smooth writing experience. This combination of user-friendliness and powerful features makes CotEditor a valuable tool for writers and developers alike.