# Why I Switched from VS Code to Zed

2023-10-30

Zed is still a macOS-only beta, but it's already my main editor.

## Backstory

Since starting my career in IT, I've used a wide variety of code editors and IDEs. My first ever line of code was actually written in an IDE called [Roblox Studio](https://www.roblox.com/create), which is used to create games on the Roblox platform. It's a pretty niche IDE, and at the time (and honestly, even today) it lacked many basic features that are considered standard in modern editors. So I quickly moved on to other, more capable editors, like JetBrains' [PhpStorm](https://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/) and [WebStorm](https://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm/).

## Visual Studio Code, the best of both worlds?

But here's the thing: I don't like slow, bloated software. When I'm writing code, I want to work quickly and efficiently, and five minutes of indexing and loading is, at least for me, unacceptable.

This is where [Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/) comes in. It's fast, lightweight, open source and free. There's a huge community creating extensions for it, and it's available on all major platforms. For me, it simply ticks all the right boxes, and it always felt like the perfect balance between a full-blown IDE and a simple text editor.

## The switch to Zed

Until a couple of weeks ago, I was a happy VS Code user. But recently I started looking for something new, something that's even faster and even more lightweight, and that's when I learned about [Zed](https://zed.dev/). It's written entirely in Rust, using its own UI framework, which makes it extremely fast. Probably the fastest editor on the market right now.

That sounds almost too good to be true, so where's the catch? Well, there are a few. First of all, Zed is still in beta (v0.110 as I'm writing this). Half a year ago, a lot of core features were missing. Since then, the editor has matured a lot, but many features and languages are still on the roadmap. It's also only available for macOS right now. Windows and Linux support is planned, but there's no ETA yet.

## Why am I using it then?

To put it simply, Zed has everything I need for my day-to-day work. It supports all the languages I regularly use, it [works with GitHub Copilot](https://zed.dev/blog/copilot), and most importantly, it has Vim emulation, so I get to keep all my muscle memory.

<VimMotionsFigure />

## Would I recommend Zed?

If you're on macOS and looking for a fast, lightweight editor, then yes, absolutely. Zed is free to download from their [website](https://zed.dev/), so I recommend giving it a try, especially if you're using Rust or TypeScript on a daily basis.

If a language or feature you need is missing, you can always [open an issue](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/issues) on Zed's GitHub, or upvote an existing one to help the developers prioritize.