Alternatives to Zed
A Rust editor from the people who built Atom, written for speed and for two people editing one file. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Zed
A Rust editor from the people who built Atom, written for speed and for two people editing one file.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Zed.
Visual Studio Code
Microsoft's code editor, free to use but shipped under a Microsoft licence rather than an open one.
Visual Studio Code has a far larger extension ecosystem and stronger remote development, but is Electron-based, heavier, and not open source.
Lapce
A code editor written in Rust with GPU rendering, built-in LSP support, optional modal editing and remote development.
Lapce is also a GPU-rendered Rust editor with built-in LSP and remote development, Apache-2.0 licensed, but pre-1.0 and without real-time collaboration.
Sublime Text
A fast native editor for code and prose, paid for but with an evaluation that never stops working.
Sublime Text is a fast native editor that handles very large files, but it is paid, closed source and has no built-in collaboration.
VSCodium
Visual Studio Code built from the same source without Microsoft’s branding, telemetry or licence.
VSCodium is an MIT-licensed VS Code build without telemetry, offering a larger Open VSX extension catalogue but running on heavier Electron.
Cursor
An AI code editor built on VS Code, with coding agents that plan and carry out tasks.
Cursor is a VS Code-based editor with AI agents across files, closed source and dependent on hosted models rather than your own key or local model.
Pulsar
Community-maintained continuation of the Atom text editor.
Pulsar continues the Atom editor from which Zed's authors came, keeping Atom's packages but running on Electron with slower startup.
Neovim
A modern rewrite of Vim with a built-in language server client, Lua configuration and an embeddable API.
Neovim is a terminal editor with built-in LSP and Tree-sitter, configured in Lua and relying on modal editing, without Zed's collaboration features.
Helix
A modal terminal editor with language servers and multiple selections built in, and no plugins to install.
Helix is a modal terminal editor with language servers and Tree-sitter built in, with no plugin system and no collaborative editing.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Zed as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
CLion
C and C++ IDE with CMake integration and deep static analysis.
Zed is a Rust editor with built-in language server support and real-time collaboration, but it lacks CLion's CMake awareness and built-in remote and embedded debugging.
CodeEdit
A lightweight, open-source code editor for macOS, built natively in Swift.
Zed is a Rust editor with GPU rendering, language servers and real-time collaboration on Windows, macOS and Linux, under a mostly GPL 3.0 licence.
Eclipse IDE
Long-established open-source IDE with a very large plugin marketplace.
Zed is a fast Rust editor with language server support and collaborative editing, with a much smaller extension ecosystem than Eclipse's marketplace.
ecode
A lightweight multi-platform code editor built on a hardware-accelerated GUI, focused on responsiveness and performance.
Zed is a GPU-rendered Rust editor for Windows, macOS and Linux with tree-sitter, language servers and real-time collaboration, though its Windows build is the least mature.
Geany
A small, fast IDE built on GTK that starts instantly and does not depend on a heavy desktop environment.
Zed is a GPU-rendered Rust editor with language servers and tree-sitter built in, though its Windows build is the least mature.
GNU Emacs
An editor that is really a Lisp environment, extensible to the point where people run their email, calendar and shell inside it.
Zed is a GPU-rendered Rust editor with language servers and real-time collaboration, but its extension ecosystem is small and it cannot be reshaped like Emacs.
GoLand
Go IDE with completion, refactoring and an integrated debugger.
Zed is a fast Rust editor with language server support out of the box, free to start, without GoLand's integrated Delve debugger and test runners.
IntelliJ IDEA
Java and Kotlin IDE with deep code analysis and refactoring.
Zed is a fast Rust editor with language server support and collaborative editing, with a much smaller extension ecosystem and no deep Java refactorings.
Kate
KDE's text editor: syntax highlighting for over 400 languages, split views, multi-cursor editing and an embedded terminal.
Zed is a GPU-rendered Rust editor with language servers built in and real-time collaboration, also running on macOS.
Kiro
An AI coding IDE and CLI that turns prompts into specs, designs and tasks for agents.
Zed is an open-source Rust editor whose AI features can use your own key or a local model, adding real-time collaboration but no spec-driven agent workflow.
Lite XL
Edit text and code in a lightweight Lua-based editor.
Zed is a GPU-rendered Rust editor with language servers and tree-sitter built in, adding collaboration at the cost of a larger application.
Notepad++
The fast Windows text and source code editor that replaced Notepad for a generation of users.
Zed is a GPU-rendered Rust editor with language servers built in, which Notepad++ lacks, though its Windows build is the least mature.
Nova
A native macOS code editor and IDE from Panic with built-in terminals, Git and debugging.
Zed is a GPU-rendered Rust editor with language servers, real-time collaboration and AI features, available on Windows and Linux, and mostly licensed under GPL 3.0 or later.
Phoenix Code
An open-source code editor for web development that continues the Brackets project, with live preview.
Zed is a GPU-rendered Rust editor with language servers and real-time collaboration, and its AI features can use your own key or a local model.
PhpStorm
A commercial JetBrains IDE for PHP, with built-in JavaScript, TypeScript and SQL support.
Zed is a fast Rust editor with language server support and AI that can use your own key or a local model, under a mostly GPL licence.
PyCharm
Python IDE with debugging, testing, scientific tools and web framework support.
Zed is a native Rust editor with language server support and real-time collaboration, lighter than PyCharm but without its integrated notebook, debugger and environment handling.
Rider
Cross-platform .NET IDE combining ReSharper analysis with a full IDE.
Zed is a fast native editor with language server support and collaborative editing, but it is a general editor without Rider's .NET analysis or Unity and Unreal integration.
RubyMine
A JetBrains IDE for Ruby and Ruby on Rails with navigation, debugging and integrated tools.
Zed is a fast Rust editor with language server support and collaboration, trading dedicated Rails tooling for speed and a lighter footprint.
RustRover
A JetBrains IDE for Rust with code analysis, refactoring, debugging, testing and Cargo integration.
Zed is a native Rust-written editor with built-in language server support, lighter than RustRover but without its dedicated profiler and refactorings.
Textadept
A fast, minimalist programmer's text editor that can be scripted and extended with Lua.
Zed is a GPU-rendered Rust editor with built-in language servers and AI features, unlike Textadept which makes no network connections.
TextMate
An open-source macOS text editor known for bundles, snippets, multiple carets and scoped settings.
Zed is a fast native Rust editor with language servers, collaboration and AI features, available beyond macOS on Windows and Linux.
Theia IDE
An open-source IDE for desktop and browser from the Eclipse Foundation that runs VS Code extensions.
Zed is a native Rust editor with collaboration and AI features using your own key, but it has a smaller extension ecosystem and no VS Code extension support.
Trae
An AI-powered code editor with built-in chat and agent modes for writing and changing code.
Zed is a mostly open-source Rust editor whose AI features can use your own key or a local model instead of a remote service.
WebStorm
JavaScript and TypeScript IDE with first-class framework support.
Zed is a fast native editor with Tree-sitter and language server support out of the box, lighter than WebStorm but without its framework-aware refactoring.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
GitHub Copilot
An AI coding assistant from GitHub that suggests code and carries out coding tasks in editors and terminals.
code-server
Use a VS Code-based workspace through your browser.
