Review Summary
Visual Studio Code is the best free code editor in the world, with a massive extension ecosystem and outstanding performance.
About This Product
2015
Redmond, Washington, United States
Erich Gamma (Swiss, designer of JUnit and Eclipse) leading the team at Microsoft
Detailed Review
VS Code was developed at Microsoft by a team led by Erich Gamma — one of the "Gang of Four" Design Patterns authors and the lead developer of Eclipse — working from Zurich. Launched at Microsoft Build in April 2015, VS Code was positioned as a "lightweight code editor" rather than a full IDE like Visual Studio. The decision to be fully open-source from day one was the key differentiator from Microsoft's previous paid editors.
Language Server Protocol (LSP) — an initiative from VS Code — has completely transformed the editor ecosystem. Instead of every editor having to implement language support independently, a single server can provide IntelliSense to all LSP-compatible editors. TypeScript, Go, Rust — all have language servers that run exceptionally well. This is the most important architectural contribution Microsoft has made to the developer community.
The extension marketplace with over 50,000 extensions is VS Code's secret weapon. From themes to debuggers to entire language support — the community has built everything. In 2024, VS Code held over 74% market share among regularly used IDEs according to the Stack Overflow survey — a level of dominance never before seen in development tools history.
Current Developments (2025–2026)
VS Code 2025 with deeper Copilot integration is turning the editor into an AI-native IDE. Edit mode in Copilot lets the AI modify multiple files simultaneously with a single natural language instruction. The Profiles feature enables switching between "work mode" and "personal mode" with different settings. VS Code for the Web (vscode.dev) continues to improve offline support and browser performance.
Strengths
- 50,000+ extensions supporting every programming language and framework in the world
- Remote Development over SSH and Containers — code on a powerful server directly from local VS Code
- Completely free and open-source — Microsoft charges nothing for any feature
- IntelliSense and integrated debugger for most languages — no need for a separate dedicated IDE
Areas for Improvement
- High RAM usage with many extensions — often consumes 500MB to 1GB, noticeable on 8GB machines
- Slower startup than Vim or Zed when many extensions are installed — especially on older hardware
- Refactoring is weaker than JetBrains IDEs for large Java, Kotlin, or TypeScript codebases
Verdict
VS Code is an excellent choice for anyone needing a powerful tool in the PC Software category. Founded in 2015 by Erich Gamma (Swiss, designer of JUnit and Eclipse) leading the team at Microsoft, this product has undergone years of development and continuous improvement. With a rating of 9.8/10, it ranks among the best in its segment. We encourage you to try the free version before deciding to upgrade.
