Top 10 Visual Studio Code Alternatives

Visual Studio Code is an Integrated Development Environment for running codes, and building and debugging the cloud and web apps. It is largely used by developers in different development processes for creating reliable and stable software applications. It is an allrounder code editor but sometimes developers need more specific functionalities that VS Code is unable to address, so they will look out for some other alternative that is why we have come up with the top Visual Studio Code Alternatives.

Therefore, in this article, we will discuss the Top 10 Visual Studio Code Alternatives that are used by the developers for the quick code-build-debug cycle. It consists of many features for day-to-day use like code formatting, multiple selection, searching, and so on.

What is Visual Studio Code?

Visual Studio Code is a completely free IDE that was developed by Microsoft with the electron framework for Windows, macOS and Linux. It is a streamlined code editor that is used for development operations like version control, debugging, and task running. It has a huge set of features, like debugging capabilities, a customizable user interface and large extension support that is really appreciated by the developers.

To learn more, refer to this article: Visual Studio Code

Top 10 Visual Studio Code Alternatives

Visual Studio Code is undoubtedly one of the best IDEs, but there are some cases where VS Code also took complex turns to render the development, so developers have built alternatives to it that have their unique features and capabilities and are used for different cases across the software industry. Some of the Top 10 Visual Studio Code Alternatives that are used by the developers are mentioned below:

• Sublime Text
• Pycharm
• Atom
• Eclipse
• Xcode
• UltraEdit
• Code Together
• Spyder
• GitLive
• Notepad++

1. Sublime Text

Sublime Text is a powerful source code editor which is available in Windows, linux and macOS. It is a multi platform editor which consists of a modern and clean user interface. It supports multiple markup and programming languages.

To learn more, refer to this article: Sublime Text

Key Features:

• The main features of Sublime Text are syntax highlighting, autocompletion and code folding,
• It is a fast and lightweight code editor.
• It consists of powerful search functionality.

Advantages:

• Sublime text is a cross-platform text editor.
• It is very fast and consists of customization options like plugins, themes and keyboard shortcuts.
• Multi selection and autocomplete type of advantages are there in sublime text.

Disadvantages:

• It is expensive when compared to other text editors.
• The extensions and plugins are quite difficult to install.

Pricing: It can be downloaded for free but the pricing starts from $80.00 one time.

2. Pycharm

Pycharm is developed by JetBrains which provides many useful tools for the Python developers. It is used for graphical debugger, version control system, testing, code analysis and also supports Django and web development.

Key Features:

• Pycharm is a smart code editor which makes the code readable.
• It supports the integration tools and multiple libraries.
• It is used as integrated unit testing and python debugger.
• It provides support to multiple web technologies.

Advantages:

• It is used for testing, code analysis and debugging.
• It allows developers to access the databases and integrating tools.
• Using the plugins the user interface of pycharm can be modified.

Disadvantages:

• More space is taken by pycharm than other text editors.
• Pycharm community version is idle only for the python development.

Pricing: Pycharm community edition is free.

3. Atom

Atom is an open source text editor developed by GitHub which is used in Windows, linux and macOS. It is a tool which can be customised to do anything. It supports the plugins which are written in Javascript.

To learn more, refer to this article: Atom

Key Features:

• Atom is a cross platform text editor with editing features.
• Auto completion, find, preview and replace features are there in atom text editor.
• Syntax highlighting feature is also present in atom.

Advantages:

• Developers can write effective code for websites using multiple languages such as HTML, CSS, PHP and JS.
• It also allows the user to install third party packages.

Disadvantage:

• It is a slow editor and also not beginner friendly.

Pricing: Atom is a free text editor as it is an open source editor.

4. Eclipse

Eclipse is a widely used, open-source integrated development environment (IDE) known for its support for Java development, but it also offers a wide range of plugins for various programming languages. Eclipse is used for Java applications development which supports multiple programming languages like PHP, Python and C++.

To learn more, refer to this article: Eclipse

Key Features:

• It has a large number of extensions and plugins available for the software developers.
• It has robust debugging features.
• It consists of a large community of developers.

Advantages:

• It provides support for multiple programming languages.
• It is faster and lightweight.

Disadvantage:

• The Eclipse user interface is a bit complex.

Pricing: Eclipse is freely available for developers to use.

5. Xcode

Xcode is a source code editor which is used by professional editors to write their iOS programs and to run them. It includes various tools for the software developers to write, test and debug software. It also helps the developer to manage the project files.

Key Features:

• Xcode is used to analyse the apps, to understand and find the memory problem and improve its performance.
• The software developer can create the reusable code and share them with other developers.
• It also supports the designing of apps with accessibility features such as switch control, voice over and so on.

Advantages:

• It supports the swift programming language which makes it easier to write the code.
• It consists of various testing tools which helps in testing the functionality of apps.

Disadvantages:

• It is only available in Apple’s platforms such as watchOS, macOS and so on.
• It is slow when working with big projects or complex codes.

Pricing: Xcode is freely available but it costs $99/year to join Apple’s developer program.

6. UltraEdit

UltraEdit is a multi-use text editor which was developed by Ian D. Mead. It is used in Windows, macOS and linux. It allows the software developers to edit and write in multiple programming languages. It is easy and versatile to use.

Key Features:

• Multi-select, multi-caret editing are the type of features there in UltraEdit.
• It also allows for writing and editing in different programming languages.
• It also has block/column and duplicate/split editing features.

Advantages:

• It is a fast, versatile and tough text editor.
• It is easy to navigate and also has a great user interface.

Disadvantage:

• UltraEdit is expensive to use even if it’s for personal use.

Pricing: The pricing of UltraEdit starts from $79.95/per year.

7. CodeTogether

CodeTogether is a real time tool which helps multiple users to work together on coding projects in a live environment from anywhere. It is a software tool with a combination of human and AI power.

Key Features:

• Text chat, audio, video and screen sharing features are available.
• It is used for running remote unit tests and the launches.
• Users can code together from anywhere.

Advantages:

• It is easy to switch between a group of users or developers who are coding together.
• It provides cross IDE support.
• Debugging in real time is possible.

Disadvantage:

• It may be too expensive for some people and some of the features present in CodeTogether are difficult to learn.

Pricing: CodeTogether consists of both free and 2 paid plans.

8. Spyder

Spyder is a free integrated development environment which is used for scientific programming in Python language. It consists of debugging, data exploration, advanced analysis and so on.

To learn more, refer to this article: Spyder

Key Features:

• It is a multi-language editor pane which develops, opens and modifies files.
• It provides vertical and splitting.
• Real time analysis is possible in Spyder.

Advantages:

• Spyder integrates with the libraries of data science.
• It provides automatic code completion type of benefits.

Disadvantage:

• It is only limited to the Python language.

Pricing: As it is an open source it is free to use.

9. GitLive

GitLive is a seamless real time code communication platform which is used for the users to merge faster by encouraging eager code review directly inside the integrated development environment. It connects the file and branches.

Key Features:

• It supports real time coding and on the top of git protocol it consists of click pair programming experience.
• GitLive offers the tools to connect issue tracker.
• Messaging and debugging features are available.

Advantages:

• It provides real time collaboration.
• Version control is available.

Disadvantage:

• Plugins are created for the team work but it does not support the hosted git solutions.

Pricing: Gitlive consists of both free and paid plans.

10. Notepad++

Notepad++ is a free source code editor and text editor for windows which is used to create and edit plain text documents. It supports multiple programming languages with code folding and syntax highlighting.

To learn more, refer to this article: Notepad++

Key Features:

• Code folding and syntax highlighting are some features of notepad ++
• It consists of features like macro recording, replace functions and advanced search.
• Auto completion is also its feature.

Advantages:

• It supports multiple programming languages.
• It creates cross platform plain text files.
• It consists of a fully customised UI.

Disadvantage:

• There is no code formatting and error detection features available in it.

Pricing: It is an open source free text editor for Windows.

Conclusion

Therefore, these are the Top 10 Visual Studio Code alternatives which are used by the developers. The VS code alternatives are used for building apps, writing efficient codes and debugging the website and cloud applications. This article covers the key features, advantages, disadvantages and pricing of the mentioned 10 alternatives of Visual Studio Code. Some of them are used for competitive programming while other are used for development in different languages., some of them are good for web development while other are popular for machine learning, depending on their capabilities. So, first research about the code editors and IDEs according to your requirements and then move forward with your project.