VSCodium
Hacker ApprovedRanked 15 of 56 text editors by recommenders
Clean open source build of VS Code without Microsoft telemetry, with the same core editor. Critics say it depends on Microsoft's VS Code and blocks some Microsoft extensions.
Clean open source build of VS Code without Microsoft telemetry, with the same core editor. Critics say it depends on Microsoft's VS Code and blocks some Microsoft extensions.
58 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 41
- criticize it
- 17
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 41 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
No Microsoft telemetry or tracking
“VSCodium is the open source "clean" build of VS Code without all the Microsoft telemetry and under MIT license.”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “I don't care how well your "AI" works” “I use it specifically to avoid a lot of the crap that Microsoft is trying to do”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “VS Code deactivates IntelliCode in favor of the paid Copilot” “It's the FLOSS branch with Microsoft tracking shit removed.”
Comment from 24 Aug 2026 in “MS Paint and Photos inivisibly watermark even locally generated output with GUID” - Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “VS Code deactivates IntelliCode in favor of the paid Copilot”
- Comment from 3 May 2026 in “VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage”
- Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “Un-AI Your Internet”
- Comment from 6 Oct 2026 in “JetBrains reports revenue growth, net financial loss for 2025”
Same core app as VS Code
“VSCodium gets you the same solid core app without the oodles and oodles of useless”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Shopify is moving from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin” “without the Microsoft-branded features that make up VS Code”
Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “I switched from VSCode to Zed” “it is VSCode but without the bullshit”
Comment from 6 Jan 2026 in “VSCodium – open-source Binaries of VSCode” - Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “VS Code deactivates IntelliCode in favor of the paid Copilot”
Good for editing Markdown
“When editing a folder of Markdown files, you can cross-link to them using Obsidian-style links.”
Comment from 12 Apr 2026 in “A practical guide for setting up Zettelkasten method in Obsidian” “the vscode/vscodium feature of clicking and dragging files to insert links”
Comment from 19 Nov 2025 in “Ned: ImGui Text Editor with GL Shaders” “I use this all the time when editing markdown in vscodium.”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 on Hacker News Runs VS Code extensions well
“I have had success with just moving the extension directory from VSCode to the VSCodium directory.”
Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “I switched from VSCode to Zed” “Flutter development for Android works great in VS Code/Codium.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Expanding Swift's IDE Support” “vscod(ium) with pyrefly LSP is miles better than Pycharm today”
Comment from 22 Sep 2026 in “JetBrains Air: A System of Products for Agentic Software Development”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Microsoft blocks some extensions and Python tools
“VSCodium does tell you your not allowed to install some extensions that are blessed by MS.”
Comment from 2 Mar 2026 in “Motorola announces a partnership with GrapheneOS Foundation” “Microsoft has been making it harder to run their proprietary python plugin in vscodium”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Copyparty, the FOSS file server [video]” “VSCodium does not support the default Python LSP on my Linux box”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Zed is our office” - Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “VSCode's SSH Agent Is Bananas (2025)”
Depends on Microsoft's VS Code development
“VSCodium wouldn't be a thing without Microsoft continuing development of VS Code”
Comment from 11 Oct 2026 in “European Alternatives” “even then using vscodium does not free you from the grasps”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “VS Code deactivates IntelliCode in favor of the paid Copilot” Lacks buffers and Emacs-style features
“it was practically impossible to make VSCode work with the concept of buffers, instead of tabs and tab groups.”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “IDEmacs: A Visual Studio Code clone for Emacs” “I quickly found VSCod(e|ium) lacks the internals to even do many of the basic useful things of Emacs.”
Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “IDEmacs: A Visual Studio Code clone for Emacs”
Other text editors people recommend
The four most recommended other text editors, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zed | 700 | 430 | 62% | 13 | 6 mo57 owners | — |
| GNU Emacs | 648 | 207 | 76% | 13 | 20 yrs158 owners | Approved |
| Vim | 513 | 127 | 80% | 13 | 20 yrs55 owners | Approved |
| Visual Studio Code | 485 | 547 | 47% | 12 | 2 yrs13 owners | — |
| VSCodiumThis page | 41 | 17 | 71% | 11 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 66 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“VSCodium wouldn't be a thing without Microsoft continuing development of VS Code”
“at least vscodium is not data-mining me”
“I have been using VSCodium (chromium-like version of VSCode) with this extension”
“I uninstalled VSCode and have fully moved to VSCodium”
“it explicitly breaks in VSCodium and no good alternatives exist”
“vscod(ium) with pyrefly LSP is miles better than Pycharm today”
“VSCodium gets you the same solid core app without the oodles and oodles of useless”
“It's the FLOSS branch with Microsoft tracking shit removed.”
“which excludes AI and telemetry by default”
“VSCodium was better on this front last time I tried it”
“That move made me gravitate towards vscodium”
“For the times I need to use VSCode, I use VSCodium instead.”
“it is also way quieter to use, no bullshit popups for updates etc.”
“These decisions really are the ones that I'll never regret.”
“opensource vscode without microsoft's spyware”
“When editing a folder of Markdown files, you can cross-link to them using Obsidian-style links.”
“Flutter development for Android works great in VS Code/Codium.”
“it feels like using VS Code before the AI hype era”
“VSCodium does tell you your not allowed to install some extensions that are blessed by MS.”
“I don't mind VSCodium that much because I can put my tooling on the side”
“VSCode includes a lot of propriety stuff that's easy to take for granted”
“it is VSCode but without the bullshit”
“search across all files; easier to navigate the results with the list of matching lines in the sidebar”
“I have been using vscodium for years, hasn't disappointed until recently”
“I have had success with just moving the extension directory from VSCode to the VSCodium directory.”
“without the Microsoft-branded features that make up VS Code”
“Same experience without the microsoft telemetry.”
“even then using vscodium does not free you from the grasps”
“It was a 99.99% seamless transition, for me.”
“VSCodium seems to keep enough distance to be immune”
“I use it specifically to avoid a lot of the crap that Microsoft is trying to do”
“Microsoft has been making it harder to run their proprietary python plugin in vscodium”
“VSCodium is the open source "clean" build of VS Code without all the Microsoft telemetry and under MIT license.”
“the vscode/vscodium feature of clicking and dragging files to insert links”
“VSCodium, with the terminal pane open so I can talk to Claude works fine for me”
“I'm always in the looking for an alternative to vscodium”
“I quickly found VSCod(e|ium) lacks the internals to even do many of the basic useful things of Emacs.”
“it was practically impossible to make VSCode work with the concept of buffers, instead of tabs and tab groups.”
“VSCodium does not support the default Python LSP on my Linux box”
“I use this all the time when editing markdown in vscodium.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.