Right now, I'm going back to using good old VS Code because I want to test out the GitHub Copilot it offers. They've added updates to the tool, but the UI is still the same. However, they now offer all the AI options.
Especially GPT5, which is getting a lot of buzz right now.
Basically, the purpose of using an IDE is to code. It's true that there are differences between IDEs. Switching from one to another would take time to adapt. Even though I think Cursor is the most powerful in this field.
But here's what I suggest. VS Code with Claude Code. In my opinion, this is the best way to code, as the two complement each other effectively. One can think about one thing while the other can work with several agents at the same time.
In terms of price, Copilote offers a free one-month trial if you subscribe. Claude Code starts at $17. The choice is yours.
What are you currently using to code?
Top comments (1)
Going back to plain VS Code is a more common move than the hype admits, and it usually comes from the same realization: the AI-IDE fork (Cursor/Windsurf) locks you into their update cadence, telemetry, and pricing, while VS Code + an agent you control gives you the same AI power without surrendering the editor itself. The intelligence was never really in the fork - it's in the model and the harness, both of which you can bring to VS Code.
That's actually the cleaner mental model: editor and agent should be decoupled. It's the principle behind Moonshift too - I didn't build another editor, I built the agent layer: a multi-agent pipeline that ships a prompt to a real SaaS on your own GitHub + Vercel, model-agnostic, routing the cheap 80% to cheap models so a full build is ~$3 flat. You keep whatever editor you like (even plain VS Code). First run's free, no card. Curious what pulled you back specifically - was it performance/bloat, the lock-in feeling, or just that the fork's edge stopped feeling worth it?
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