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Visual Studio Code vs Pulsar: catalog facts
Visual Studio Code	Pulsar
Free Free to download and use. GitHub Copilot and other AI features are separate paid…	Free The software is free under its open-source licence. Hosting, hardware and external…
Windows, macOS, Linux	Windows, macOS, Linux
Extensions for essentially every language and framework Remote development over SSH, in containers and in WSL	It revives the Atom package ecosystem with its own package registry, so the hackable editor and its plugins…
The shipped build is not open source and collects telemetry by default Its extension marketplace is licensed for Microsoft builds only	It is still Electron-based and inherits Atom's memory use and startup time, with a much smaller maintainer team.
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Closed source	Open source
License: Microsoft product licence	License: MIT
No account needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 21, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.