The defacto IDE standard
February 05, 2026

The defacto IDE standard

Josh Armitage | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Visual Studio Code

Microsoft Visual Studio Code is our predominant IDE (integrated development environment) that we use both internally and with clients.

We use it to develop applications and platforms with clients across all verticals.

It being free to use, and with an open source core, means we can easily bring it with us to clients without having to engage in procurement and licensing.

Additionally our engineers are provided internally with GitHub Copilot, and it is often available on clients, integrating directly into our IDE.

Pros

  • Large ecosystem of extensions, you can nearly always find an extension for the project you're working on
  • First party integration for language servers allows for rapid feedback during development
  • First class support for dev containers allows us to reduce setup related issues during development

Cons

  • GitHub Copilot integration lags behind what is available in Cursor and equivalents
  • Support for certain languages lags behind more specialised IDEs, e.g. java with IntelliJ
  • Better support for debugging slow extensions
  • It provides a cost free IDE option that allows for more rapid onboarding with clients
  • It's native integration with GitHub Copilot, and other LLM-centric extensions has enabled us to rapidly prototype new ideas
  • It provides a standard basis for work that allows us to collaborate better as a team, and continuously improve
Over the years Microsoft Visual Studio Code has actually helped cement a lot of the IDE user experience we've come to know.

Coming from many other IDEs, the idioms you're used to will apply, and there are additional options for using other keybindings, even vim.

It would be great if Microsoft Visual Studio Code prompted users to learn keyboard shortcuts through their general flow of work. New users can sometimes be stuck driving predominantly with the mouse.

Additionally, slow extensions can be difficult to identify and debug as the status is often relegated to the periphery of the windows.
The licensing of the IntelliJ IDEs is prohibitive, I cannot be sure that I can continue to leverage them as I move between clients.

Zed while interesting doesn't have the market or mindshare to be a daily driver working as part of a team. I wouldn't be able to benefit from many of the day to day automations and findings that the team invents during the course of delivery.

Do you think Microsoft Visual Studio Code delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Microsoft Visual Studio Code's feature set?

Yes

Did Microsoft Visual Studio Code live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Microsoft Visual Studio Code go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Microsoft Visual Studio Code again?

Yes

As a general workhorse IDE, Microsoft Visual Studio Codee is unmatched. Building on the early success of applications such as Atom, it has long been the standard for electron based IDEs.

It can be outshone using IDEs that are dedicated to particular platforms, such as Microsoft Visual Studio Code for .net and the Jetbrains IDEs for Java, Python and others.

For remote collaborative development, something like Zed is ahead of VSCode live share, which can be quite flakey.

Comments

More Reviews of Microsoft Visual Studio Code

  1. Home
  2. Text Editors
  3. Microsoft Visual Studio Code Reviews
  4. User Review of Microsoft Visual Studio Code