VS Code is perfect for most of us, but let’s not pretend it’s just another open-source tool. The source code is available under the MIT license, but the product you actually download from Microsoft is distributed under a different license. It also includes telemetry and tracking. If you want an editor that just works, and you’re okay with Microsoft collecting that data, I’m not even going to try to sell you an alternative. VS Code fits your use case perfectly.

But if the idea of being tracked makes you uncomfortable, and you’ve started noticing the occasional slowdown or stability issue, it’s worth remembering that VS Code isn’t exactly a lightweight editor. It’s powerful, but it’s not the fastest tool out there. Take Zed, for example. In terms of pure performance, it easily beats VS Code. It starts faster, feels more responsive, and generally runs lighter. The only problem is that it’s still a fairly new platform, so its extension ecosystem is nowhere near as rich yet.

What does beat VS Code in a much more practical way is VSCodium. It’s built directly from the open-source VS Code codebase, but without Microsoft’s proprietary bits or telemetry. More importantly, it still supports the extensions you’re already using. So you get the same editor, the same workflow, and the same extension ecosystem, just lighter and fully open source.

VSCodium has everything you expect from VS Code

Plus, it's faster and lighter

VSCodium is built from the exact same open-source repository that powers Visual Studio Code. The project compiles binaries directly from the Code-OSS source, which is licensed under MIT and publicly available. That means the editor itself is not a fork or a rewrite. The interface, core functionality, and developer tools are the same millions of developers already use in VS Code.

What’s different is that the official VS Code builds distributed by Microsoft include proprietary components, branding, and telemetry, while VSCodium removes those additions. It distributes binaries built purely from the open-source Code-OSS repository. For developers who care about transparency or simply prefer software without usage tracking, that alone is a strong reason to switch.

Without Microsoft’s proprietary layers and telemetry services running in the background, the editor also feels lighter to use. I often notice faster startup times, fewer background processes, and lower overall resource usage, especially on systems where VS Code already feels heavy.

Beyond that, VSCodium keeps the full feature set that made VS Code popular in the first place. You still get IntelliSense for code completion, an integrated terminal, built-in Git tools for version control, and a powerful debugging environment. The editor supports multi-cursor editing, code navigation, syntax highlighting, workspace management, and hundreds of programming languages through language servers.

Even the cross-platform support is identical. You get VSCodium on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and the project continuously rebuilds new releases as updates land in the upstream VS Code repository. That means improvements, security patches, and editor enhancements arrive regularly without developers having to wait for a separate development cycle.

Extension support is solid on VSCodium

I rarely come across extensions that don't work

One of the biggest reasons developers stick with VS Code is its massive extension ecosystem, and that is something I did not want to lose when switching editors. Thankfully, VSCodium keeps that part of the experience intact. The editor supports the same extension APIs used by VS Code, which means extensions built for VS Code generally work in VSCodium as well.

The main difference is where those extensions come from. Instead of connecting to Microsoft’s Visual Studio Marketplace, VSCodium uses the Open VSX Registry by default. Open VSX is an open-source extension registry maintained by the Eclipse Foundation and designed specifically for editors built on the VS Code extension model. It allows developers to publish extensions that can be used across compatible editors without being tied to Microsoft’s marketplace.

This separation exists for a legal reason. The Visual Studio Marketplace terms restrict its extensions to Microsoft products like Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, GitHub Codespaces, and Azure DevOps. Since VSCodium is a community-built distribution of Code-OSS rather than an official Microsoft product, it cannot use that marketplace by default. Open VSX exists to provide a vendor-neutral alternative that supports the same extension format.

I still get access to most of the extensions that made VS Code useful in the first place. Language servers, code formatters, linters, themes, Git integrations, and debugging tools are widely available through Open VSX. Because the extension APIs are the same, those extensions behave exactly the way they would in VS Code.

There are a few exceptions. Some extensions published by Microsoft or other vendors include proprietary components or licenses that restrict them to the official VS Code distribution. Those extensions may not appear in Open VSX or may not work in VSCodium.

There's a world beyond VS Code

While I admit VS Code is good, it’s not the only IDE worth considering. In 2026, you have an ocean of tools that are even better than VS Code, with VSCodium being just one example. There’s also Cursor, which again is a VS Code fork but is far better thanks to AI-assisted development features. Google’s Antigravity is another solid tool. And if you don’t want anything to do with big tech, you can consider Zed, which is a beast of its own.