Hello guuys 👋
Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a popular code editor developed by Microsoft. It has gained widespread adoption among developers due to its lightweight design, numerous built-in features, and extensibility through plugins. On the other hand, IntelliJ is a powerful-integrated development environment (IDE) developed by JetBrains. It is commonly used for Java development, but also supports other languages such as Kotlin, Python, and C++.
While both VS Code and IntelliJ are popular choices among developers, there are certain advantages to using VS Code over IntelliJ.
Lightweight design
One of the main advantages of VS Code is its lightweight design. It is designed to be a simple code editor, rather than a full-fledged IDE like IntelliJ. This means that it consumes fewer system resources and starts up faster. This can be especially useful for developers working on older or low-spec machines.
Built-in features
VS Code comes with a number of built-in features that can be helpful for developers. These include a built-in terminal, integration with Git, syntax highlighting, code formatting, and code completion. Many of these features are also available in IntelliJ, but they may require additional plugins or configuration to be set up.
Extensibility through plugins
VS Code has a large ecosystem of plugins that can be used to extend its functionality. These plugins can be installed directly from the VS Code marketplace and can range from language support to productivity tools. This allows developers to customize their code editor to fit their specific needs and workflow.
Cross-platform support
VS Code is available on Windows, Linux, and macOS and Web, making it a good choice for developers working on multiple platforms. IntelliJ, on the other hand, is only available on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Cost
VS Code is free to use and open source, while IntelliJ has a paid subscription model. This can be a significant factor for developers working on a budget or for organizations looking to save on development costs.
In conclusion, while both VS Code and IntelliJ are excellent code editors and IDEs, there are certain advantages to using VS Code. Its lightweight design, built-in features, extensibility through plugins, cross-platform support, and cost make it a good choice for many developers. Ultimately, the decision of which tool to use will depend on the specific needs and preferences of the developer.
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Top comments (11)
Not sure I understand...
I forgot to add web platform.
Edited. Thanks
Or maybe ChatGPT wrote the article...
Not at all ... It's just a mistake in my sentence because I forgot the web platform for vscode.
cf: vscode.dev
Sorry then 😅
Only the price is the real advantage here. But not for professional development job obviously.
Don’t get me wrong, I like VS Code, but for larger code bases it’s too poor in terms of performance, and it’s light only without plugins, but for real work you’ll need a whole bunch of them. Also all popular dev tools around are cross-platform in fact, and the technology VS Code uses to implement that is not the best and the most performant one.
So all in all the only real advantage of VS Code for me as a JS developer (paying fourty bucks for webstorm yearly) is the possibility to create and customize plugins in a much easier way (Intelij ecosystem is Java/Kotlin based). You can have some real fun with that.
I would be totally on your side if there is no VS Code Web.
For remote working, you can have the exactly same environment synced between your computers. Even between different OS. This is a game breaker for me.
But I never try VS Code on huge codebases, and I suppose that in case of web based VS Code the performance is even worse.
I am very confident that you have never used IntelliJ IDEs in your life.
That is almost correct, I have primarily used Visual Studio Code for my coding projects(even Android native project). However, I have also dabbled with IntelliJ IDEs in the past. While I do appreciate the features and capabilities(autocompletion) of IntelliJ, I have found it to be quite resource-intensive and not as portable as VS Code.
Hey, don't want to sound rude but you can't write a comparison if you haven't used two extensively.
Agree, but I have lot more experience with Android Studio.