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Visual Studio Code Alternatives for Linux

Looking for Visual Studio Code alternatives? We've curated 38 top alternatives that offer similar functionality. Whether you need Linux options, free plans, or open source solutions, explore our comprehensive list to find the perfect fit for your needs.

Sublime Text

Sublime Text

Freemium

Sublime Text is a sophisticated text editor for code, markup, and prose. It's known for its speed, powerful features, and extensive customization options. With features like multiple cursors, GoTo Anything, and a robust plugin ecosystem, it's a favorite among developers and writers alike for boosting productivity and creating a tailored editing environment.

Key Features

  • Exceptional performance and speed
  • Highly customizable interface and behavior
  • Powerful features like multiple cursors and GoTo Anything

vs Visual Studio Code

Exceptional performance and speed compared to Visual Studio Code
Eclipse

Eclipse

Open Source

Eclipse is a powerful, open-source Integrated Development Environment (IDE) widely used for Java development, but also supporting a variety of other programming languages through its extensive plugin ecosystem. It provides a robust set of tools for coding, debugging, testing, and deployment.

Key Features

  • Highly extensible with a vast plugin ecosystem
  • Strong support for Java development with robust tools
  • Open source and free to use

vs Visual Studio Code

Highly extensible with a vast plugin ecosystem compared to Visual Studio Code
Vim

Vim

Open Source

Vim is an advanced, highly configurable text editor designed for efficiency, particularly favored by developers. Operating primarily in the terminal, it offers powerful editing capabilities through keyboard commands, syntax highlighting, and extensive plugin support, making it a cornerstone tool for programming and advanced text manipulation.

Key Features

  • Extremely efficient for text editing once mastered.
  • Highly customizable and extensible with a vast plugin ecosystem.
  • Lightweight and available on almost all platforms.

vs Visual Studio Code

Extremely efficient for text editing once mastered. compared to Visual Studio Code
NetBeans

NetBeans

Open Source

NetBeans is a free and open-source Integrated Development Environment (IDE) specifically designed for enterprise-level Java development, supporting a wide array of other languages and technologies, including PHP, C++, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. It provides comprehensive tools for coding, debugging, testing, and deploying applications.

Key Features

  • Comprehensive features for various programming languages.
  • Strong support for Java development.
  • Integrated debugger and version control.

vs Visual Studio Code

Comprehensive features for various programming languages. compared to Visual Studio Code
Atom

Atom

Open Source

Atom is a highly customizable and extensible open-source text editor developed by GitHub. Built on Electron, it provides a modern, hackable platform for developers, offering robust features like syntax highlighting, Git integration, and a vast ecosystem of packages to enhance productivity and tailor the editing experience to individual needs.

Key Features

  • Highly customizable and extensible through a vast package ecosystem.
  • Strong integrated support for Git and GitHub.
  • Open-source and free to use.

vs Visual Studio Code

Highly customizable and extensible through a vast package ecosystem. compared to Visual Studio Code
gedit

gedit

Open Source

gedit is a free and open-source text and code editor for the GNOME desktop environment. Known for its simplicity and clean interface, gedit provides essential features for both general text editing and basic code development, making it a popular choice for users seeking a straightforward and efficient tool.

Key Features

  • Very user-friendly and easy to learn
  • Excellent performance and lightweight
  • Good syntax highlighting and basic coding features

vs Visual Studio Code

Very user-friendly and easy to learn compared to Visual Studio Code
Geany

Geany

Open Source

Geany is a powerful yet lightweight text editor that bridges the gap between basic editors and full-fledged IDEs. It provides essential development environment features like syntax highlighting, code navigation, and a built-in terminal, making it suitable for a wide range of programming tasks.

Key Features

  • Lightweight and fast performance, even with large files.
  • Excellent balance of text editor simplicity and IDE features.
  • Highly customizable interface and behavior.

vs Visual Studio Code

Lightweight and fast performance, even with large files. compared to Visual Studio Code
Aptana Studio

Aptana Studio

Open Source

Aptana Studio was a robust, open-source integrated development environment (IDE) specifically designed for web development. It provided developers with a comprehensive set of tools and features to build web applications efficiently, supporting various web technologies like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and Python.

Key Features

  • Comprehensive support for web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript).
  • Strong features for PHP and Python development including debugging.
  • Integrated FTP/SFTP client simplifies deployment.

vs Visual Studio Code

Comprehensive support for web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript). compared to Visual Studio Code
Brackets

Brackets

Open Source

Brackets is a modern, open-source code editor specifically designed for web development. Built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, it prioritizes a streamlined workflow with its innovative features like Live Preview and inline editors, making front-end development more intuitive and efficient.

Key Features

  • Excellent Live Preview feature for real-time visual feedback.
  • Inline Editors improve workflow by keeping related code together.
  • Specifically designed and optimized for front-end web development.

vs Visual Studio Code

Excellent Live Preview feature for real-time visual feedback. compared to Visual Studio Code
GNU Emacs

GNU Emacs

Open Source

GNU Emacs is a highly extensible and customizable text editor, renowed for its powerful features and ability to serve as a complete development environment. It is based on the Emacs Lisp programming language, allowing for deep customization and a vast ecosystem of packages.

Key Features

  • Highly customizable and extensible through Emacs Lisp.
  • Vast ecosystem of packages for added functionality.
  • Can serve as a comprehensive development environment.

vs Visual Studio Code

Highly customizable and extensible through Emacs Lisp. compared to Visual Studio Code
IntelliJ IDEA

IntelliJ IDEA

Freemium

IntelliJ IDEA is a powerful Integrated Development Environment (IDE) designed primarily for Java programming, but also supporting a wide range of other languages and frameworks. Renowned for its intelligent code assistance, developer-friendly features, and robust tooling, it accelerates development workflows and improves code quality.

Key Features

  • Industry-leading intelligent code assistance and analysis.
  • Excellent refactoring tools that improve code quality and maintainability.
  • Broad support for multiple programming languages and frameworks.

vs Visual Studio Code

Industry-leading intelligent code assistance and analysis. compared to Visual Studio Code
Komodo Edit

Komodo Edit

Open Source

Komodo Edit is a powerful yet lightweight text editor specifically designed for dynamic programming languages. It offers a comprehensive suite of features for developers working with languages like Python, PHP, JavaScript, and Perl, providing smart editing tools, a customizable interface, and extensibility through plugins.

Key Features

  • Free and open source with no licensing costs.
  • Optimized with rich features for dynamic programming languages.
  • Lightweight and performant, suitable for various system configurations.

vs Visual Studio Code

Free and open source with no licensing costs. compared to Visual Studio Code
PhpStorm

PhpStorm

Commercial

PhpStorm is a powerful, commercial IDE for PHP developers, built on the renowned IntelliJ IDEA platform. It offers extensive features for efficient coding, debugging, and project management across multiple platforms.

Key Features

  • Intelligent and context-aware code assistance for PHP.
  • Powerful and integrated debugger for efficient troubleshooting.
  • Robust refactoring tools for safe code restructuring.

vs Visual Studio Code

Intelligent and context-aware code assistance for PHP. compared to Visual Studio Code
GNU nano

GNU nano

Open Source

GNU nano is a user-friendly command-line text editor widely used on Unix-like systems. Known for its simplicity and quick startup, it provides basic editing functionalities for configuration files, scripts, and general text manipulation directly within the terminal environment.

Key Features

  • Very easy to learn and use, even for beginners.
  • Extremely fast startup time and low resource usage.
  • Displays common commands at the bottom of the screen.

vs Visual Studio Code

Very easy to learn and use, even for beginners. compared to Visual Studio Code
Kate

Kate

Open Source

Kate, the KDE Advanced Text Editor, is a powerful yet lightweight text editor popular among developers and advanced users. Offering robust features like syntax highlighting, built-in terminal, extensibility via plugins, and comprehensive customization options, Kate caters to a wide range of text editing and coding tasks across platforms.

Key Features

  • Feature-rich with advanced tools like built-in terminal and regex support.
  • Highly customizable interface, themes, and keyboard shortcuts.
  • Extensive syntax highlighting with support for custom languages.

vs Visual Studio Code

Feature-rich with advanced tools like built-in terminal and regex support. compared to Visual Studio Code
UltraEdit

UltraEdit

Commercial

UltraEdit is a powerful and versatile text, hex, and code editor designed for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It offers a comprehensive feature set for developers, programmers, web designers, and general users working with text files, code, and binary data.

Key Features

  • Handles extremely large files efficiently.
  • Excellent Hex editing features.
  • Extremely customizable interface and functionality.

vs Visual Studio Code

Handles extremely large files efficiently. compared to Visual Studio Code
SciTE

SciTE

Open Source

SciTE is a free and open-source text and code editor built on the SCIntilla editing component. It's designed to be a lightweight yet powerful tool for programmers and web developers, offering syntax highlighting, code folding, autocompletion, and extensibility across multiple platforms.

Key Features

  • Extremely lightweight and fast performance.
  • High degree of customization through configuration files.
  • Good syntax highlighting and features for many languages.

vs Visual Studio Code

Extremely lightweight and fast performance. compared to Visual Studio Code
Bluefish Editor

Bluefish Editor

Open Source

Bluefish is a powerful yet lightweight code editor designed for web developers and programmers. It offers a wide array of features for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and many other programming languages, focusing on efficiency and ease of use for building dynamic websites and applications.

Key Features

  • Very lightweight and fast, ideal for quick editing and less powerful systems.
  • Integrated FTP/SFTP client simplifies remote file management.
  • Strong syntax highlighting and code completion for many languages.

vs Visual Studio Code

Very lightweight and fast, ideal for quick editing and less powerful systems. compared to Visual Studio Code
jEdit

jEdit

Open Source

jEdit is a mature, feature-rich text editor written in Java. It's highly extensible via plugins and suitable for programmers and general text editing tasks across various operating systems.

Key Features

  • Highly extensible through a large plugin ecosystem.
  • Excellent cross-platform compatibility due to being written in Java.
  • Powerful search and replace functionality, including regular expressions.

vs Visual Studio Code

Highly extensible through a large plugin ecosystem. compared to Visual Studio Code
WebStorm

WebStorm

Commercial

WebStorm is a powerful JavaScript IDE from JetBrains, designed for modern web development. It offers advanced coding assistance for JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, alongside support for many related technologies like Node.js, React, Angular, and Vue.js. Its rich feature set includes smart code completion, error detection, refactoring, debugging, and integrated development tools.

Key Features

  • Highly intelligent code assistance and refactoring.
  • Excellent integrated debugging capabilities.
  • Deep support for modern JavaScript frameworks.

vs Visual Studio Code

Highly intelligent code assistance and refactoring. compared to Visual Studio Code
PyCharm

PyCharm

Commercial

PyCharm is a powerful, cross-platform Integrated Development Environment (IDE) specifically designed for Python developers. It offers intelligent coding assistance, a wide range of developer tools, and deep integration with various development workflows, making it ideal for everything from small scripts to large-scale web applications.

Key Features

  • Highly intelligent code completion and analysis.
  • Powerful and integrated debugger.
  • Comprehensive set of development tools in one place.

vs Visual Studio Code

Highly intelligent code completion and analysis. compared to Visual Studio Code
Leafpad

Leafpad

Open Source

Leafpad is an exceptionally lightweight and straightforward text editor designed for Linux, BSD, and Maemo environments. It prioritizes speed and efficiency, offering basic text editing functionalities without the complexity of feature-rich editors.

Key Features

  • Extremely lightweight and fast startup.
  • Simple and intuitive user interface.
  • Minimal resource consumption.

vs Visual Studio Code

Extremely lightweight and fast startup. compared to Visual Studio Code
VSCodium

VSCodium

Open Source

VSCodium is a community-driven, freely licensed distribution of Microsoft's VS Code editor. It removes proprietary telemetry and tracking, providing a truly open-source alternative for developers who prioritize privacy and freedom.

Key Features

  • Completely free and open source
  • Removes Microsoft telemetry and tracking
  • Familiar and intuitive user interface

vs Visual Studio Code

Completely free and open source compared to Visual Studio Code
Light Table

Light Table

Open Source

Light Table is an innovative code editor designed to provide developers with instant feedback and a deeper connection to their code. It offers a clean and customizable interface, focusing on interactive development and visualizing data flow.

Key Features

  • Provides instant feedback on code changes.
  • Visualizes data flow and values within the editor.
  • Highly customizable interface and workflow.

vs Visual Studio Code

Provides instant feedback on code changes. compared to Visual Studio Code
Komodo IDE

Komodo IDE

Commercial

Komodo IDE is a powerful and flexible integrated development environment designed for building dynamic web applications.

Key Features

  • Excellent support for multiple dynamic languages.
  • Powerful and integrated debugger.
  • Highly extensible through plugins and extensions.

vs Visual Studio Code

Excellent support for multiple dynamic languages. compared to Visual Studio Code
ReText

ReText

Open Source

ReText is a straightforward yet effective text editor designed primarily for authoring documents in Markdown and reStructuredText. It provides essential features like live preview and syntax highlighting, making it a suitable choice for writers and developers who prefer lightweight, plain text formats.

Key Features

  • Excellent Live Preview for Markdown and reStructuredText
  • Lightweight and Fast Performance
  • Clear and Effective Syntax Highlighting

vs Visual Studio Code

Excellent Live Preview for Markdown and reStructuredText compared to Visual Studio Code
Scribes

Scribes

Open Source

Scribes is a free and open-source minimalist text editor designed for programmers and writers who value simplicity and efficiency. It provides a clean interface with essential features like syntax highlighting, autocompletion, and extensibility through plugins, making it a lightweight yet powerful tool for various coding and writing tasks.

Key Features

  • Minimalist and clean user interface.
  • Lightweight and fast performance.
  • Good syntax highlighting and autocompletion.

vs Visual Studio Code

Minimalist and clean user interface. compared to Visual Studio Code
Textadept

Textadept

Open Source

Textadept is a powerful, free, and open-source text editor designed for programmers. Focusing on speed and extensibility, it offers a minimalist interface while providing robust features like syntax highlighting, code formatting, and a built-in terminal, all heavily customizable through Lua scripting.

Key Features

  • Extremely lightweight and fast performance.
  • Deeply customizable through Lua scripting.
  • Integrated terminal is highly convenient.

vs Visual Studio Code

Extremely lightweight and fast performance. compared to Visual Studio Code
Lime Text

Lime Text

Open Source

Lime Text is a community-driven, open-source text editor designed for programmers and web developers. It provides a clean and customizable interface with rich features for efficient coding, including syntax highlighting, distraction-free mode, and extensibility through plugins.

Key Features

  • Free and open-source: Accessible to everyone and modifiable.
  • Clean and distraction-free user interface.
  • Syntax highlighting for multiple languages.

vs Visual Studio Code

Free and open-source: Accessible to everyone and modifiable. compared to Visual Studio Code
Neovim

Neovim

Open Source

Neovim is a modern, extended version of the Vim text editor, focusing on usability, extensibility, and integration. It's designed for developers and power users seeking a highly customizable and efficient text editing experience, particularly within the terminal environment.

Key Features

  • Extremely efficient workflow through modal editing.
  • Highly customizable and extensible through configuration and plugins.
  • Excellent performance, especially for large files.

vs Visual Studio Code

Extremely efficient workflow through modal editing. compared to Visual Studio Code
Mousepad

Mousepad

Open Source

Mousepad is a straightforward yet capable text editor designed specifically for the Xfce desktop environment. It provides essential text editing functionalities in a lightweight package, making it an excellent choice for everyday tasks and basic code editing.

Key Features

  • Extremely lightweight and fast startup
  • Simple and intuitive user interface
  • Efficient tabbed interface for multiple documents

vs Visual Studio Code

Extremely lightweight and fast startup compared to Visual Studio Code
Editra

Editra

Open Source

Editra is a robust, cross-platform text editor designed with developers in mind. It's open-source, highly customizable through plugins, and features essential tools for coding like syntax highlighting, code completion, and an embedded terminal.

Key Features

  • Highly customizable through plugins.
  • Seamlessly works on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
  • Includes an integrated terminal for convenience.

vs Visual Studio Code

Highly customizable through plugins. compared to Visual Studio Code
JOE

JOE

Open Source

JOE (Joe's Own Editor) is a venerable, full-featured terminal-based text editor known for its ease of use and extensive feature set, making it suitable for both casual editing and complex programming tasks within the command line environment.

Key Features

  • User-friendly for a terminal editor
  • Feature-rich
  • Lightweight and fast

vs Visual Studio Code

User-friendly for a terminal editor compared to Visual Studio Code
Scratch

Scratch

Open Source

Scratch is a powerful yet lightweight text editor designed for developers and anyone working with code or plain text. It offers automatic saving, syntax highlighting, and a range of features to boost productivity, all within a customizable and extensible interface.

Key Features

  • Automatic saving significantly reduces risk of data loss.
  • Very lightweight and performs well, even on older hardware.
  • Good syntax highlighting support for coding.

vs Visual Studio Code

Automatic saving significantly reduces risk of data loss. compared to Visual Studio Code
TweakStyle

TweakStyle

Commercial

TweakStyle is an advanced code editor meticulously crafted for web developers. It simplifies the process of creating and fine-tuning web projects with a focus on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, offering powerful features like live preview, code completion, and integrated tools.

Key Features

  • Excellent live preview for instant feedback.
  • Strong support for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
  • Integrated FTP client streamlines deployment.

vs Visual Studio Code

Excellent live preview for instant feedback. compared to Visual Studio Code
Zed Code Editor

Zed Code Editor

Open Source

Zed was a powerful, open-source code and text editor designed for developers who prioritized keyboard-centric workflows and offline capabilities. It aimed to provide a fast, responsive editing experience with advanced features like syntax highlighting, code completion, and integrated tools.

Key Features

  • Works completely offline.
  • Lightweight and performant.
  • Keyboard-centric for efficient editing.

vs Visual Studio Code

Works completely offline. compared to Visual Studio Code
GNOME Builder

GNOME Builder

Open Source

GNOME Builder is a modern, powerful, and user-friendly Integrated Development Environment (IDE) designed specifically for the GNOME desktop. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools for developing applications, websites, and other projects, with a strong focus on simplicity and integration within the GNOME ecosystem.

Key Features

  • Seamless integration with the GNOME desktop environment.
  • Clean, modern, and user-friendly interface.
  • Good performance and lightweight compared to some other IDEs.

vs Visual Studio Code

Seamless integration with the GNOME desktop environment. compared to Visual Studio Code
MadEdit

MadEdit

Open Source

MadEdit is a discontinued, cross-platform text and hex editor designed with developers in mind. It offers syntax highlighting, a hex editing mode, and various customization options within a lightweight, tabbed interface. While no longer maintained, it provided a range of features useful for coding and binary file manipulation.

Key Features

  • Integrated text and hex editing reduces the need for multiple applications.
  • Lightweight and responsive, even with larger files.
  • Cross-platform support allows for a consistent experience.

vs Visual Studio Code

Integrated text and hex editing reduces the need for multiple applications. compared to Visual Studio Code

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