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Microsoft Visual Studio Code

Microsoft Visual Studio Code

Overview

What is Microsoft Visual Studio Code?

Microsoft offers Visual Studio Code, a text editor that supports code editing, debugging, IntelliSense syntax highlighting, and other features.

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Recent Reviews

Visual Studio Code - happy coding

9 out of 10
July 12, 2023
It is a mighty and lightweight IDE which never seen. It supports almost all the languages. It has extensive verities of extensions for …
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One of the best code editors

8 out of 10
January 17, 2023
Visual Studio Code has been really helpful to me, allowing me to utilize my time more effectively and accomplish the task, more thanks to …
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Awesome IDE for Developers

8 out of 10
December 15, 2022
Visual Code Studio is used in my organization for development operations like coding, debugging, sharing code, using git clone thorough …
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VS Code - You will love it

10 out of 10
April 30, 2022
1. Writing day-to-day code 2. running and debugging my Flutter apps 3. Write Test code for my projects 4. Access remote host via pem file …
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Awards

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Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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What is Microsoft Visual Studio Code?

Microsoft offers Visual Studio Code, a text editor that supports code editing, debugging, IntelliSense syntax highlighting, and other features.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Product Details

What is Microsoft Visual Studio Code?

Microsoft Visual Studio Code Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Microsoft offers Visual Studio Code, a text editor that supports code editing, debugging, IntelliSense syntax highlighting, and other features.

Microsoft Visual Studio Code starts at $0.

Reviewers rate Usability highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of Microsoft Visual Studio Code are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(845)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 36)
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Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Visual Code Studio is used in my organization for development operations like coding, debugging, sharing code, using git clone thorough it. It is completely used by all of us for writing code and do practice on it. It is a code editor which helps in getting error easily in fact it shows it shows error during writing code and also recommend best way to write code. It is used also for deployment also. All files can be opened and used. We can use terminal also to run.
  • Shows error while writing code.
  • Provide Terminal to run the code
  • Various package available
  • Different languages supports like python, java, c, c++.
  • supports different technology
  • split view
  • git integration
  • provide instruction on each piece of code
VS Code editor makes it easier to write code. Whenever we type any code, it shows error if code contains error, this is the best part.
It also provides live server to show output. we can have different package that is to be imported and installed. this allows to use different features to use.
No of extension of different can also be used.
Bimal Subedi | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Being an IT company, our organization needs to develop various lines of code every day to develop our clients' products. Writing codes in traditional text editors like notepad, notepad++ is a bit tricky. There is no even delimiter matching in the notepad. This had created a huge problem in our organization. To solve these problems, our organization began to use Microsoft Visual Studio Code. Using this tool, we can easily search for required files and required lines of code. Errors are automatically detected by using suitable packages for the programming language that we are working on. Also, we can take benefit of the inbuilt terminal in the software.
  • Checks error while writing codes
  • Provides great Extensions so that it can support almost any language
  • Git and Github implementaion can be done easily
  • Newly added Gihub Copilot crashes a lot.
  • It would be better if php and python deployment was made easier.
  • Searching for settings is a bit complicated.
Microsoft Visual Studio Code is well suited for emerging developers who want to increase their productivity while coding new lines of code. Developers can get a package of all the tools needed for them in this single software which is really fascinating. For people other than the programming field, this tool is less appropriate.
ANurag Tamrakar | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
VSCode makes it easier to write code. Whenever you make a syntax error or a typo it warns you immediately, which is really awesome! Also, it enables us to integrate debugger, lint, build, and publishing tools. It even comes with a huge set of plugins, which makes it superior! It supports almost every language, but if a language is not supported or if it's missing you can add it.
  • It helps us write code without errors.
  • It also helps us with building and testing code on the fly and deploying code locally.
  • It's better than any other paid or free IDE/Text Editor.
  • I didn't find any problem with using VSCode.
  • Yes, there were some bug in the previous release, but now those are fixed.
It's open-source and has a very big community. Plugins are available for almost every language/framework to lint, build, and test code. UI/UX looks premium. Last but not least, it's free! It is well suited to us and there is not any scenario where it is not appropriate. I would recommend everyone to use it.
Tao Mihiranga | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Our company provides web-based applications, mobile applications, and graphic designs. Mostly we are using Microsoft Visual Studio Code day-to-day work life. It is a very comfortable IDE software for debugging, task running, and version control. We are working with Python, PHP, java, javascript, and many more languages. even, for mobile application development, we are using the Microsoft Visual Studio Code.
  • According to me, auto save function is a one of the best feature in VS Code.
  • A lot of extensions provide by VS Code. It's made our code very smooth and more powerful.
  • It is very configurable and can use many predefined actions.
  • Debugging supporter AI should be more improved.
  • Hard to change setting on VS Code. so that should be more user-friendly
  • Sometimes VS Code gets high CPU usage for running. so, the machine freezes sometimes.
I used different kinds of IDE software before. But VS Code is the best IDE I ever used. I am using this software in my day-to-day work life. I have to work with python, PHP, javascript, and java. I don't need different IDEs for Different languages, I can code with this one IDE platform. Compared with other IDE software, this is the most powerful and lightweight IDE software.
Tim Hardy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We used Microsoft Visual Studio Code to handle many of our JavaScript projects. Visual Studio Code is much more suited to Single Page Application (SPA) projects, NodeJs projects, and any client-focused projects than Visual Studio. Visual Studio is not a good fit for any project that needs to respond to many files changing on the file system, which SPA projects typically do. Visual Studio Code fills this gap by allowing the file system to be the source of truth, instead of fighting changes to the file system, like Visual Studio will do.
  • Manages SPA applications well by responding to changes on the file system, such as those made by "ng serve".
  • Manages any npm-based application by responding to changes made by "npm install".
  • Highly pluggable architecture allows the Developer to configure their environment however they like.
  • I would like there to be a more "out of the box" default configurations for Angular projects. By default, Visual Studio Code does not honor tslint suggestions in Angular projects, and it creates friction between devs who are set up to honor Angular's tslint guidelines and newer developers who are not. Just a single choice to "configure for Angular" would be great.
  • I would also like to be able to use the Visual Studio Code as a "git merge tool" to handle merge conflicts. You currently can't do that in VS Code.
  • I'd like to be able to pin tabs like I can in Visual Studio, so I can keep certain files always open.
Visual Studio Code is perfect for any JavaScript-focused project, especially those which have a lot of file changes occurring from outside the IDE. Any sort of linting process or auto-building process, like "ng serve", gulp, grunt, etc will be well-served and managed via Visual Studio Code. We use it for any scenario where Visual Studio becomes a pain in the butt. Conversely, .NET projects are better served with Visual Studio.
Moris Mendez | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Currently our department is using Microsoft Visual Studio Code as the main tool for the development of programs and systems that help meet the objectives of our department, in addition to being of great help for the maintenance of systems that are already implemented.
Although Microsoft Visual Studio Code is one of the best options for developing systems, it still does not have the desired presence throughout our organization because many are unaware of the potential of this tool.
  • Code analysis of applications or systems already implemented is of great help to detect syntax errors or functions that are obsolete
  • The automatic linking of functions or procedures installed in programming blocks is fantastic, since we must not remember the address or the name of the file where the definition of the function or procedure is.
  • The customization of the entire environment provides accelerated productivity by being able to choose the extensions or plugins that best suit our development pace
  • The customization of key combinations should be more accessible and easier to change
  • The auxiliary panels could be minimized or as floating tabs which are displayed when you click on them
  • A monitoring panel of resources used by Microsoft Visual Studio Code or plugins and extensions would help a lot to be able to detect any malfunction of these
Microsoft Visual Studio Code is highly recommended for the development of systems and / or complex applications entrusted to work teams under a specific methodology, and its use is also recommended for the maintenance of previously developed applications.
It is not recommended as a learning environment for developers with little experience as the learning curve would be too high
Mark Orlando | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our team is using Visual Studio Code to develop Angular web applications. Visual Studio Code was chosen because it's built to work with Git. The previous version of our product was developed in Visual Studio NS used Team Foundation Server for source control. Since the team decided to switch development to pure Angular instead of a hybrid model, Visual Studio Code and GIT were no-brainer choices.
  • Lightening fast UI.
  • Very easy to prototype individual components and later roll those up into larger ones.
  • Vast array of free add-ons available from the public.
  • Easy integration with Git.
  • Easy to learn what monthly updates were delivered.
  • Lack of button bar like ones found in Visual Studio.
  • Lack of integrated help that could link to YouTube, Channel 9, or other Microsoft videos on how to learn about features.
  • Integration with Team Foundation Server.
  • Would like to see it having some sort of integration into a Web API testing harness.
If your Source Control Software is Team Foundation Server then skip Visual Studio Code. If you're using GitHub and are creating small projects Visual Studio Code is the way to go. If you need to create a large, enterprise-level application, Visual Studio Code makes it easier to set up interactions between related projects (client & server). If you're interested in getting back to the old way of using the command line to create projects and you know what to enter in the console window then Visual Studio Code is great. Visual Studio Code is a better choice if you don't know the console commands and prefer to make selections from a menu.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IDE choice is entirely up to engineers' personal preference within my organisation, but an overwhelming majority of my colleagues choose to use Microsoft Visual Studio Code. The quality of the editor in itself is fantastic to start with, but when combined with plugins (of which there are many in the ecosystem) it becomes truly invaluable for us in maintaining code quality and speeding up development through its various in-built and extended features. This means that coding can remain pretty consistent amongst engineers (at least in terms of conventions) and that configuration in certain languages and projects can be shared and enforced with relative ease, for example when linting various filetypes.
  • Free, quick and easy to install
  • Extensive plugin ecosystem and support
  • Extensible in configuration and personalisation
  • Personal settings can easily be synced to a personal or group source code management platform
  • Intuitive to use
  • Some plugins can be inconsistent in quality
  • Performance can be affected with many plugins running (especially linting or hinting)
  • Can be a bit of a "one size fits all" rather than specialised
Microsoft Visual Studio Code is suitable for almost any coding needs, though it is specifically best for web-based projects. As far as I'm aware is very commonly geared towards the relatively recent explosion in javascript, TypeScript and similar languages, with some other competitors possibly being more suitable for lower-level languages (e.g. Java, C# etc). Certainly a lot of the plugin ecosystem appears to centre around frontend language features for the various languages and frameworks, this is generally what I personally use it for, and so I don't know with any great confidence that it's particularly unsuitable for other languages, rather that I've not used it for other purposes.
I generally would, and have, recommend Microsoft Visual Studio Code to any web engineer who is not already using it.
Tharsanan Kurukulasingam | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Microsoft Visual Studio Code for all my JavaScript-related development. My day-to-day activity involves SVN, as It is easier to commit the files using Microsoft Visual Studio Code. The SVN plugin in this software is very easy to use, we can see the diffs easily, and it's very fast.
  • A lot of plugins available to try out based on your need.
  • Simple and light weight. It wont eat up your machine power.
  • I personally like the UI its simple and easy to use.
  • I am trying to find a good Intelli-Sence plugin for auto-completion and autosuggestion but I have not found a good one yet.
If you want to edit a file real quick, it's really easy to use 'code' just have to type "code file path " it will pop up immediately. It's easy to commit multiple files through visual code. I personally use this and love it. But sometimes the integrated terminal act strange or buggy, but this is not a big deal.
Theodore K. Langston | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As a freelance designer developer I use Microsoft Visual Studio Code as a primary component in my web development workflow. It is an essential code editor that I use exclusively for web development. The feature set and additional add-ons make it a fundamental tool in my development stack.
  • Code editing
  • git and versioning
  • autocomplete
  • formatting
  • Sometimes too many options
  • more focus on terminal
Microsoft Visual Studio Code is well suited for your code writing, editing and compiling needs. Error handling and troubleshooting can be made easier with add-ons. A wealth of programming languages are supported. Terminal integration along with git repository handling are a welcome feature. It is not yet a code-in-browser solution.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Software engineers in our organization use Visual Studio Code by their own choice, and usually to develop software as per their job requirements. Although, our engineering department makes available licenses for full-fledged IDEs like IntelliJ RubyMine for that purpose, many developers choose editors like Code because of its lightweight nature and extensibility.
  • It is fast and snappy in most cases, unlike IDEs (IntelliJ, Eclipse etc.) that take quite a lot of time to start up and are sluggish even during use (including on high-end Macbook Pros).
  • It provides great and top-notch support for a huge number of languages and web development frameworks. This support is either built-in or provided using first-party (Microsoft) or third-party extensions. E.g. Microsoft provides its own extension for Python, and Golang provides an official Visual Studio Code extension.
  • Microsoft keeps continuously improving Code with new features and performance improvements.
  • Unlike for most languages I have used, Ruby and Rails support available for Code users isn't great. The most popular Ruby extension is unofficial, and leaves much to desire. As an example, code navigation even with language server Solargraph installed isn't as good as IntelliJ's RubyMine.
  • Even there is quite good support for a language or a framework, it is almost never as good as a dedicated IDE for it. In terms of the sheer number of features available, IntelliJ IDEs handily beat Code.
  • Microsoft has close-sourced some of the extensions it develops for Code itself, e.g. Pylance for Python, and that has not been perceived as a good move for open-source.
If you want a snappy text editor that can handle almost any language you throw at it, provides decent code navigation, is not memory-intensive and can do without advanced support for your particular language that you would expect from an IDE, you should go for it. Keep in mind that even if you like IDEs more, you may end up paying a lot for your subscription, while Visual Studio Code is free.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
At my company, we use Microsoft Visual Studio Code as one of our IDE options in our development group. We let each developer choose which IDE they prefer. Most often, we are developing with PHP and JS. Microsoft Visual Studio Code is very helpful for its Intellisense, git integration, and debugger. Further, its supported extensions allow for integration with several other third-party applications that can significantly speed up projects on a case-by-case basis. While we use it for PHP and JS development, it supports many other languages as well and really brings in a lot of the feeling of traditional Visual Studio.
  • Intellisense significantly speeds up coding process.
  • Debugger allows for stepping through code and more easily identifying issues.
  • Git integration saves time by not requiring running a separate application or command line.
  • Indexed code allows for better navigation of your repository and libraries when learning new code bases.
  • I personally have some trouble setting up the code linting. I have had a slightly easier time of that with PHP Storm.
  • Sometimes the Intellisense autocomplete seems to be missing functions. I presume this is due to something I have not set up properly within the code repository, but I have yet to figure out why.
Microsoft Visual Studio Code is particularly well suited to larger projects that tie in several libraries. It is especially helpful when needing to discover how a library or a plugin works, as you can easily navigate through the various functions and files and see how they tie together. This is especially helpful when dealing with a mishmash of well structured vs not as well structured code, where things are not always placed where you would expect. It has also helped with large version upgrades (particularly Drupal) where functionality can change drastically and must be knit back into the project.

I would not say there is a coding situation where Microsoft Visual Studio Code is not appropriate. It can be a little bit of overkill on a small, simple HTML project or JS app, but even then you are not losing anything with it. I would not choose to something like Sublime Text in these situations, but I could see why some people would.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Microsoft Visual Studio Code is a very helpful, good software for text/source-code editing. It has enormous features. I used it as a code editor but sometimes I used it as text editor, too. I am greatly benefitting from it. The best thing about this software is that it gives us plenty of useful features in a single software like code/text editing, debugging, etc. Overall, I didn't face any major problems with it.
  • Microsoft Visual Studio Code is my favorite because there are lots of useful code-editing features packed in a single software.
  • It saves time--it has a feature that automatically writes the rest of the code (Intelligent Code Completion).
  • It has a very easy-to-use interface (UI) unlike any similar product in the market.
  • It is very good at debugging code.
  • If we continuously use Microsoft Visual Studio Code for many hours, devices gets heated up.
  • It consumes so much battery in a very less time.
  • It takes time descent amount of time to open. Not Recommended for Slow Computers.
If you're a programmer/developer, I would likely recommend Microsoft Visual Studio Code to you more than anyone else, as it may not be that much useful to anyone except you. Overall, I will recommend it to everyone.
Patrick Fong | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Here in the engineering org, all of frontend developers use VSCode to write their Javascript/HTML/CSS. But more than that, we also have about half of our backend developers using VSCode to write our...*drum roll* Scala code! What!? Yes, while VSCode and similar glorified text editors such as Sublime Text and Atom are traditionally relegated to being used by programmers for dynamically typed / interpreted languages, VSCode is so powerful and awesome even backend people such as me use it for writing Scala, which if you didn't know is perhaps the epitome of a typed and compiled language. VSCode makes writing code of all sorts much easier and doesn't get in your way.
  • Very active development with Microsoft backing. I don't see VSCode going away for a decade.
  • Very active community with all the plugins you need
  • For a electron app, VSCode's speed is stellar, almost comparable to ST3 which is natively built
  • Similar to all other electron apps, VSCode's memory and battery usage is pretty bad. Better plug in when you use it!
  • No git merging, which many people have come to expect as ST3 and Atom have the ability to do that
  • Default key shortcuts make no sense and I had to reconfigure almost all of them
If you are already very comfortable and invested in one of VSCode's "competitors" such as Sublime Text or Atom, I suggest you just stay on that. They are still pretty good and VSCode isn't THAT much better to make the effort to switch. However, if you aren't tight with ST3 or Atom already and you use a dynamically typed language, then definitely hop on the train! VSCode is the future for all developers using JS, Python, etc.
What if you're backend? Do you love or hate all the heavy weight features of Eclipse or IntelliJ? If they are getting in your way, I suggest you switch to VSCode, which is way more lightweight and not overwhelming to use.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Microsoft Visual Studio Code is used across the whole organization. I know many people in both Information Technologies and Research & Development departments that use Microsoft Visual Studio Code. It is used to develop embedded software for electronic cards, .NET programs that are used by other business units, background services, and Python scripts that help to automate some tasks in the mainframe. Therefore it is used primarily in C/C++, C#, and Python. I used it with C (embedded software programming) and Python(for Advanced Analytics and Machine Learning.)
  • Provides good UI/UX
  • Runs fast thanks to its efficiency/small size
  • Interface for plotting graphs (Matplotlib, Seaborn) can be improved.
  • Installation of compilers can be made easier for the user.
Microsoft Visual Studio Code is well suited if you're a full-stack developer/or someone who uses several programming languages and libraries in the same platform/computer since it supports them all together. I used it with C, C++, and Python so far, and I know it supports even more. It is especially cool how little space it takes compared to other platforms, which make it run fast, too. Installation of the fundamental pack is relatively easy, also but of course, it requires specialization and knowledge to maintain more and more packages and features. So Microsoft Visual Studio Code can be seen as a tremendous fundamental package that wraps up the essentials, which enables it to be small and fast yet supports more if you want more.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Visual Studio Code is used by all our web development teams supporting different languages and file types. It is highly customized and has great features for collaboration. Easy git integration making it easier for the team to do frequent pushes to their branches.
  • It is highly customizable (Languages, File types, colors schemes).
  • Great git integration.
  • It is free, and multi-platform, we use it on different Linux distributions, Mac and Windows.
  • It has great support for scripting languages but for compiled languages there are some better alternatives.
  • A curated plugin list would be nice, there is a rather solid plugin suggestion mechanism, but some of the more junior members end up with some flaky plugins sometimes.
  • Configuration sync to some cloud so you can easily move stations.
Visual Studio code is providing us with a superb tool for our developers, everyone can configure it to their liking and it works well across multiple locales by using live share and integration with Slack or even Discord. Integration with Docker technologies is also great for local testing of code. It is a bit harder to get adoption from people that have been developing in compiled languages.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our whole Web Development team uses Microsoft Visual Studio Code. It is the best open-source code editor out there. It allows us to cheaply replace an IDE with open source software, and an AppStore like suite of add-ons for enabling some pretty impressive features, all for free. You can even share code snippets across your team as a JSON file. We find this super useful. It helps our small team collaborate easier and get our Web Development work done. We use it for PHP, JS, JSON primarily, and love the extensions that help you read code easier or work faster with autocompletion of just about any coding language.
  • It's free. There are tons of IDEs out there, and many of them very useful. For a small team at a small company, you may not need to pay a dime.
  • Add-ons/extensions. There is a Microsoft Visual Studio Code Marketplace (free), where people create free extensions and add-ons with the Microsoft Visual Studio Code community. This is by far the best part about Microsoft Visual Studio Code. Our team uses extensions for autocompletion, highlighting colors in CSS/SCSS. I can't imagine coding without it now.
  • Flexibility. It is highly customizable. Our whole team uses Microsoft Visual Studio Code, but each person has put their own personal touch on the look/feel extensions they use.
  • Built-in dev tools. Native Git tools, terminal access built-in for MAC users, code linting and "prettifying" etc. Your senior dev can set the formatting for specific file types, and when saving the files, it will correct from someone who uses 2 spaces v 4 spaces v tabs based on rules that you set.
  • Needs some work to set up like a true IDE, but for free, it's worth a few mins of grabbing extensions and customizing.
  • For new coders/developers, they can go overboard with un-needed extensions, slowing down the code editor. Simple coaching can help with this.
For more advanced developers, you may find an actual IDE to be useful still, but I'll bet you can do 95% of what your IDE does with Microsoft Visual Studio Code for free. For small, scrappy (translation: cost-conscious) teams, you really can't beat Microsoft Visual Studio Code. Most of the features of a real IDE with minimal setup, and all for free. Your team may have specific needs that make an IDE necessary. However, I think for most development teams, Mircosoft Visual Studio Code will get the job done, and for free. Microsoft Visual Studio Code beats Atom in our book too because features like emmet, terminal integration, and git tools are built right into Microsoft Visual Studio Code. You need extensions for these in Atom. Microsoft Visual Studio Code tends to run more smoothly for our PC users than Atom as well.
Keegan Gladstone | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Visual Studio Code is used at will by our development team. Developers are allowed to use whichever IDE/code editor they would like. About 50% of our Javascript developers use VS Code, while the other 50% use WebStorm. For development in other languages like Java, they may pick a more robust IDE like Eclipse. I spend 80% of my time developing in Javascript and VS Code allows me to easily customize the workspace for my workflow, as well as quickly switch and inherit workflows from other projects.
  • VS Code is really good at allowing customization and extensibility. There are a ton of extensions to use for all types of workflow enhancement. In particular, the user snippets and keybindings really help me personalize the experience for my developing style.
  • VS Code works really well with Typescript. I really like the linting and IntelliSense that come with it. It makes the development process so much faster!
  • I like that it has an integrated terminal. The terminal makes it easy to execute programs, tests, and make git changes. Its all right there and easily opened with a hotkey. I love that you can even run as many as you want! so one tab can be running a webpack development server, another watching your tests, and another for making git commits. All without leaving the window.
  • The command palette is a nice touch. It's very easy to open with a hotkey and customizable to your own commands. Once you are familiar with all of them it makes your workflow quite fast, being able to open, run, change the configuration, etc all with simple commands.
  • Sometimes it can't keep up with all of the extensions, linting, etc that you are trying to run. It's great that it is lightweight, but if you don't get your configuration right you can be asking it to do a lot. An example is if you are running ESLINT and don't tell it to ignore the node_modules, it will try to lint it. I noticed this really slows things down to the point where you need to reload the window.
  • You can't open the same project in two different windows. A forward approach to git repositories is to have a 'monorepo'. This doesn't the best with VSCode since you can't open the same project in multiple windows. It constrains you to either opening subfolders individually (which messes up the runtime root) or forces you to work in the workspaces mode.
  • There is no visibility into conflicting extensions. It would be great if they added visibility into what extensions are accessing which pieces of the internal API, so they could notify users of conflicts.
I really like VS Code for web development. All the latest Javascript and Typescript are supported and the workflow really aligns with what's available in the editor. Its also really fast, so running things a webpack development server for 'hot reloading' is a breeze and makes for super-fast development. I love that it can run and reflect my changes immediately, and doesn't seem to slow down my computer in any way.
Evan Archuleta | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Microsoft Visual Studio Code helps me write python in a clear and organized fashion. The python package helps color code and indent as needed. It has made learning python easier and I would recommend it to anyone! It's been my favorite way to code so far above JupyterLab and online based systems.
  • I love the color coding and automatic error checking.
  • Can run multiple terminals within.
  • Python library is easy to install and very helpful.
  • It would be nice to create folders within Microsoft Visual Studio Code instead of creating them on your computer first.
  • Would be nice to use sticky keys so you can save CLs and your program name instead of typing it each time.
  • It auto saves some things I never intended to save like random code thoughts which is kind of annoying.
Microsoft Visual Studio Code is well suited for anywhere and especially if you don't have internet. I wish it had a mobile version as well so I could use that when I don't have my computer up.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Microsoft Visual Studio Code is being used in our organization by the IT Department, of which I am a member. I use VS Code to build web-based applications to satisfy the needs and requirements of our internal operations. These web-based apps fill a specific need in our organization that off-the-shelf software does not address. Thus, VS Code gives us a way to better utilize our IT infrastructure through building custom solutions to solve particular business challenges.
  • It is a lightweight code editor.
  • It makes it easy to build and test APIs and web apps locally.
  • It is free, which means I can also develop apps on my own time and on my personal equipment in the same environment that I use for work.
  • It does not deploy to IIS.
  • It does not handle apps that require Windows authentication.
  • It cannot be used for remote debugging.
I use VS Code specifically to develop internal web-based applications using an ASP .NET API back-end written in C# and an Angular front-end. It is very easy for me to use VS Code to spin up both the API and the front-end locally for development and testing. However, in order to conduct End-User Testing, I have to switch to the full-fledged Visual Studio to deploy my applications to IIS.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
From developing code to managing commits on GitHub, Microsoft Visual Studio Code saves the day.
One of the best platform to develop in that provides multiple plugins for making life simple. Whatever language you need, Microsoft Visual Studio Code will support it for sure and if not, there will be multiple plugins for the same. There is code completion, error highlights, code suggestions, syntax highlights, and an inbuilt console. It is really a developers dream. Used almost by every developer and is appreciated by everyone.
  • Syntax highlighting, code completions.
  • Plugins for various additional support and extending its functionality.
  • GitHub Integration.
  • Error when handling and inbuilt console.
  • Some plugins are not easy to configure.
  • Sometimes when using auto format plugin, it makes code behave improperly. It adds additional line breaks in areas not needed.
  • Initially a bit difficult to understand how some functions work.
It is something which a developer can use for any use case may it be web development, react-native and what not. They can make some improvements to include additional features for SpringBoot and other advanced Java support which will make it even better. Nevertheless, Microsoft Visual Studio Code is a flexible program that can nearly be used anywhere.
Chris Reddy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I am using Microsoft Visual Studio Code to write cross-platform web applications. It is being used within my department and addresses the issue of installing/purchasing the full Visual Studio IDE, as well as being cross-platform.
  • Very small footprint/installation package, and it can be downloaded/installed in under 10 minutes.
  • It is a full-featured IDE and can be run on multiple operating systems.
  • It is open-source and has a great community that is continually making updates and extensions.
  • It could use some improvement in the Debug side.
  • It could also use improvement with Nuget and other source control sources.
  • It needs improvement if you're planning to develop Windows Form-based applications.
If you're needing to get up and running in a programming IDE as quick as possible, Microsoft Visual Studio Code is the way to go. It is very well tailored to web development and integrates well with Typescript and Angular.
If you're developing Windows Forms-based applications, it is not really appropriate to use. Also, if you're planning to use third-party toolkits not yet supported by .Net Core, it's a challenge to get working.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Visual Studio Code is used by a lot of our developers here. It's the best free code editor out there for the work we do. I am just amazed by how much you could do with it. There isn't a visual debugger like in VS 15 or newer versions but I usually debug locally and is just fine. It's also very smooth and quick. I haven't encountered any issues yet.
  • The search functionality is great.
  • I like how when I click on a class, it opens it to view quickly and once you click on another class it will remove that tab. Only when you double click it keeps it.
  • Suggested fixes work perfectly here.
  • I'd like to see visual debugging but I get the limitation.
It's a full rounded editor. For me, I edit TS, HTML, CSS in it and write my unit tests. I've used it before for .net development. A lot of cool extensions can be added as well to it that will be suggested to you when you need them. I always need to use a split screen when coding, and it allows you to do so. If you're a developer that needs it, it's perfect.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are a software development company and most of our developers have the option to download and use Visual Studio Code. Having said that, I believe most developers at our organization have adopted Visual Studio Code.
For myself, I primarily use it for text-editing and coding .NET core applications. It's quick to load which makes it a great tool when you want to edit small text files. It also has great extension add-ons that you can install to get even more functionality than what it provides out of the box.
  • Developing .NET Core Applications. You can install the C# extension and write C# code fluently.
  • The software starts very quickly because it's light-weight, making it a perfect solution for editing text-files quickly.
  • There is an extensions marketplace, which makes it easy to download tools for other languages, such as Ruby and Python.
  • Configuring the software is overwhelming. There aren't clear menu options to jump into editor preferences. You're also dealing with JSON if you want to make changes to your preferences.
  • I'd like the built-in terminal to have the ability to jump between words in a command. Right now you need to use your keyboard arrow keys and you can only move character-by-character.
Suitable for:
- Working in a Linux/Mac environment.
- Developing .NET Core applications.
- Editing various files.
- Scripting in languages such as Ruby, Python and PowerShell.
- Great for writing Markdown files. You can download an extension to preview markdown.
Andrew Folts | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Visual Studio Code is the first Microsoft app I've used and really loved. It provides a clean interface for writing code, and the extension/community is very helpful in adding functionality that speeds up my workflow. I primarily use it for writing React apps via GatsbyJS. The autocomplete features are handy in minimizing the amount of typing I have to do. It works well with a widescreen monitor, because you can quickly drag your tabs into different panes.
  • Clean, minimal interface
  • Great community and extension library
  • Autocomplete speeds up your workflow
  • I wish there was a way to have tab groups of commonly-opened files, because the tab bar quickly overflows
  • I don't like the "Open editors" list on top of my directories—it's redundant (the tab bar shows the same thing)
  • The code view scrollbar is annoying because it's too tiny to show anything, and should be removed. The regular scrollbar is sufficient.
Coming from Atom, I was very hesitant to adopt VS Code. I felt like Microsoft would monopolize the editor space and kill off open-source communities. The opposite is true—VS Code has a massive community and is every bit as flexible as Atom. You can even implement visual themes from Atom! I would recommend it for any web developers, although there may be better options for native developers: Xcode, etc.
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