Developer tools · text editor
Zed
A fast, native Rust code editor that feels far more responsive and lighter on memory than VS Code, with optional AI agent features; expect rough edges and missing polish.
Summarized from 1555 comments.
A fast, native Rust code editor that feels far more responsive and lighter on memory than VS Code, with optional AI agent features; expect rough edges and missing polish.
- recommend
- 700
- criticize
- 430
- months recommended
- 13 of 13
- median owned, 57 owners said
- 0.5 years
Why people love it
Fast, native, not Electron · 5
Zed, however, is written in Rust (i.e., not Electron), and I would guess it is at least an order of magnitude more responsive than VS Code
Nov 2025 · commentIt's a very fast and capable editor with lots of IDE features, but it's lacking comfortable ways of tuning it for specific projects.
Apr 2026 · commentZed's value proposition is being basically that but with fully native code, so without the madness that is Electron
Feb 2026 · commentLow memory on large repos · 3
Being able to work in a large monorepo without the editor freezing and taking 15+GB of RAM was a strong selling point
Apr 2026 · commentI abandoned VSCode for zed, because I was tired of the slow performance of VSCode and how much memory it consumes.
May 2026 · commentAgreed, multibuffers are such a huge QOL feature. I love being able to work across a dozen or more buffers at once with no impact on performance.
Feb 2026 · commentOpen agent protocol and local models · 4
Zed was first harness where you could seriously use local models. The issue is more about not having to check so many options to make sure it's all local.
May 2026 · commentI think that the Zed approach of having a common protocol to talk with agents (like a LSP but for agents) is much better.
Nov 2025 · commentZed develops and pioneers ACP (Agent Client Protocol), which I can also use in other editors and with other agents.
Nov 2025 · commentStable for daily use · 3
I've been using Zed for over a year. I've had one or two crashes over that year, which is very stable for using it all day every day.
May 2026 · commentI've been using this "almost unusable" editor daily on both Linux and Mac for the past year and now experience no issues.
Aug 2026 · commentZed's very handy, I find, and i'm not saying so because i'm driven to it by aversion to alternatives: it's just very useful.
Aug 2026 · comment
What people warn about
Rough edges and broken basics · 3
Zed still has a lot of rough edges. A month or two ago I couldn't believe that a basic feature like code folding was just completely broken.
Aug 2026 · commentZed's stack is pretty damn good. But like anything not yet widely used outside of its original use case, it can be rough around the edges
Nov 2025 · commentI’m using Zed a lot as well for Golang and a bit for Rust. For Java it is also hard to use and lacking the same polish.
Jul 2026 · commentFile tree misses external changes · 4
failing to show newly created files and declining to provide a refresh button, instead adding a polling backend, breaks Zed on WSL
Aug 2026 · commentI can't get over tabs for terminals and the file explorer doesn't refresh when new files are added from external sources
Apr 2026 · commentWhere as with Zed it'll just keep showing the old content and in fact closing and opening file wont even change what it shows in Zed.
Nov 2025 · commentRestrictive terms and telemetry concerns · 3
If you need an education in law to be able to trust a business isn't trying to steal from you, then maybe you just shouldn't trust that business at all.
Apr 2026 · commenttheir terms of service which are pretty restrictive and involve(d) a clause that lets them revoke your access to the editor at any time for any reason
Apr 2026 · commentThe telemetry section of the TOS explicitly clarifies that that does not restrict their ability to use the data that is sent to them.
Apr 2026 · commentUnwanted AI and auto-installs · 3
yesterday the Read Only drop-down disappeared and while I was doing my code review the AI agent started vibe coding without my permission
Aug 2026 · commentZed is a nonstarter for me as long as they install additional software (third party runtimes to run LSPs) without asking my permission.
May 2026 · commentpurely on the lack of any controls over the collaboration feature that gets turned on the instant that you log into Github with it
May 2026 · comment
What hackers pick instead
- GNU EmacsLong-time users praise Emacs as a deeply programmable Lisp environment you can reshape endlessly, with excellent built-in help, but it takes heavy configuration and its defaults feel dated.648recommend
- VimA free, lightweight terminal editor whose fast keyboard-driven editing and macros stay useful for decades on any machine, though critics cite poor defaults and cumbersome mode switching.513recommend
- Visual Studio CodeA free editor with a huge extension ecosystem that works the same on every OS, though critics cite extension security risks, Electron sluggishness and a constant push toward AI features.485recommend
- NeovimA keyboard-driven, extensible Vim fork with built-in LSP, Lua scripting and a strong plugin ecosystem, though critics cite breaking changes and an upgrade that deleted old Vim undo files.295recommend
- VS CodeA free, extensible editor that handles almost any language well enough out of the box, with strong extensions and remote development; critics dislike Microsoft's Copilot push and weaker specialized tooling.273recommend
Every quote
The 40 most detailed of 1555 comments. Each links to the original.
Zed was first harness where you could seriously use local models. The issue is more about not having to check so many options to make sure it's all local.
Mixed · May 2026 · in “Zed Editor Theme-Builder”
Agreed, multibuffers are such a huge QOL feature. I love being able to work across a dozen or more buffers at once with no impact on performance.
Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Zed editor switching graphics lib from blade to wgpu”
Zed still has a lot of rough edges. A month or two ago I couldn't believe that a basic feature like code folding was just completely broken.
Mixed · Aug 2026 · in “Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX”
Zed, however, is written in Rust (i.e., not Electron), and I would guess it is at least an order of magnitude more responsive than VS Code
Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Zed is our office”
yesterday the Read Only drop-down disappeared and while I was doing my code review the AI agent started vibe coding without my permission
Mixed · Aug 2026 · in “Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX”
Zed's stack is pretty damn good. But like anything not yet widely used outside of its original use case, it can be rough around the edges
Mixed · Nov 2025 · in “Ratatui – App Showcase”
I've been using Zed for over a year. I've had one or two crashes over that year, which is very stable for using it all day every day.
Recommends · May 2026 · in “Zed Editor Theme-Builder”
It's a very fast and capable editor with lots of IDE features, but it's lacking comfortable ways of tuning it for specific projects.
Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “Zed is 1.0”
failing to show newly created files and declining to provide a refresh button, instead adding a polling backend, breaks Zed on WSL
Mixed · Aug 2026 · in “Zed DeltaDB”
Zed, as an IDE, can connect to a VM via ssh and both edit and run things like Claude or its built-in agentic harness on your code
Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “AI Agent Has Root”
Zed's very handy, I find, and i'm not saying so because i'm driven to it by aversion to alternatives: it's just very useful.
Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Cursor Is Joining SpaceX”
I've been using this "almost unusable" editor daily on both Linux and Mac for the past year and now experience no issues.
Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Zed DeltaDB”
I think that the Zed approach of having a common protocol to talk with agents (like a LSP but for agents) is much better.
Mixed · Nov 2025 · in “Google Antigravity”
I can't get over tabs for terminals and the file explorer doesn't refresh when new files are added from external sources
Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “Zed is 1.0”
I’m using Zed a lot as well for Golang and a bit for Rust. For Java it is also hard to use and lacking the same polish.
Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “Escape IntelliJ: Scala and Kotlin LSPs on Emacs Eglot”
Being able to work in a large monorepo without the editor freezing and taking 15+GB of RAM was a strong selling point
Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “SpaceX Strikes Deal With Cursor for $60 Billion”
Zed's value proposition is being basically that but with fully native code, so without the madness that is Electron
Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Zed editor switching graphics lib from blade to wgpu”
Zed develops and pioneers ACP (Agent Client Protocol), which I can also use in other editors and with other agents.
Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Codemaps: Understand Code, Before You Vibe It”
I really like the performance and control zed provides, as well as the reduced UI clutter compared to alternatives.
Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Zed is 1.0”
I abandoned VSCode for zed, because I was tired of the slow performance of VSCode and how much memory it consumes.
Recommends · May 2026 · in “Native all the way, until you need text”
community contributions to sort basic filesystem events to ensure all files are monitored get sidelined without PR reviews and approvals for weeks/months
Criticizes · Aug 2026 · in “Zed: Delta”
If you need an education in law to be able to trust a business isn't trying to steal from you, then maybe you just shouldn't trust that business at all.
Criticizes · Apr 2026 · in “Zed is 1.0”
their terms of service which are pretty restrictive and involve(d) a clause that lets them revoke your access to the editor at any time for any reason
Criticizes · Apr 2026 · in “Zed is 1.0”
Zed is a nonstarter for me as long as they install additional software (third party runtimes to run LSPs) without asking my permission.
Criticizes · May 2026 · in “VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage”
The telemetry section of the TOS explicitly clarifies that that does not restrict their ability to use the data that is sent to them.
Criticizes · Apr 2026 · in “Zed is 1.0”
Where as with Zed it'll just keep showing the old content and in fact closing and opening file wont even change what it shows in Zed.
Criticizes · Nov 2025 · in “Zed is our office”
purely on the lack of any controls over the collaboration feature that gets turned on the instant that you log into Github with it
Criticizes · May 2026 · in “VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage”
Updates are frequent, and while it's totally usable it's still immature enough as a full IDE that the improvements are often something that will directly improve how I use it.
Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Nothing works and everyone is euphoric”
There's a setting to turn all AI features off with one toggle and you're back to an 'editor still being being developed and focusing on the experience of coding by hand'
Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Parallel Agents in Zed”
Definitely a step in the right direction, always felt like new editors like Fleet (from Jetbrains) and Zed lacked quite a lot for themes
Mixed · May 2026 · in “Zed Editor Theme-Builder”
its implementation of structural editing and movement is better than mine, and pretty close to 1:1 with the commands available in Emacs
Mixed · Jan 2026 · in “After two years of vibecoding, I'm back to writing by hand”
The combination of WASM extensions, and the ability to put language servers, etc, in dev-containers seems like a great step forward.
Recommends · May 2026 · in “GitHub confirms breach of 3,800 repos via malicious VSCode extension”
I really love Zed, but my only issue is the Emacs keybindings they ship doesn’t seem to work as well as the VSCode Emacs extensions
Mixed · Jan 2026 · in “I switched from VSCode to Zed”
looks promising, even if "no separate extensions" under Known Limitations for the initial release is perhaps a little unfortunate
Mixed · Jan 2026 · in “I switched from VSCode to Zed”
I really like Zed, I use it every day. But, if I'd seen this layout when I first installed, I never would have taken it seriously
Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “Parallel Agents in Zed”
Last time I tried to run it on Ubuntu a month ago it worked, though I use a newer version than the one in the linked issue.
Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Zed is 1.0”
This would be good for code-walks too though. Instead of having to share your screen and hope the video comes through well.
Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Zed is our office”
I tried them a little and they really look well (like discord, but directly in editor). But this was very superficial look
Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “Zed is 1.0”
It's a good editor, but the AI features are forgettable, and probably a distraction away from the core value proposition.
Mixed · Aug 2026 · in “Zed: Edit predictions are leaving the free Personal plan on October 7”
the little green warning in the corner is way to unobtrusive and will result in many people having the same issue as you
Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “Zed is 1.0”
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