I Wanted to Switch to Zed, But the Extension Ecosystem Pulled Me Back to VS Code

Like many developers, I've been intrigued by Zed.

It's fast, modern, written in Rust, has a clean UI, and feels refreshingly responsive compared to traditional editors. On paper, it looks like a serious contender to challenge VS Code.

I recently spent some time trying to make Zed my primary editor. Unfortunately, I ran into the same issue that many promising editors face:

The editor itself is excellent, but the ecosystem is not there yet.

The Reality of Developer Workflows

When people compare editors, they often focus on startup time, memory usage, AI features, or rendering performance.

Those things matter.

But after years of development, I've realized that my workflow is defined less by the editor itself and more by the ecosystem around it.

My daily work isn't just writing code.

I also:

• Create technical presentations
• Maintain documentation
• Manage knowledge bases
• Write research notes
• Work with Markdown-heavy projects
• Build software across multiple languages and environments

For these workflows, VS Code's extension ecosystem has become difficult to replace.

The Missing Piece: Marp

One of the first things I noticed was the absence of a mature Marp workflow.

I use Marp extensively for creating presentations directly from Markdown.

The workflow is simple:

Markdown → Slides → PDF/PPTX/Presentation

In VS Code, Marp feels integrated into the editor experience.

I can:

• Preview slides instantly
• Export presentations
• Iterate quickly
• Keep presentations version-controlled alongside code

For developers who create technical talks, conference presentations, lecture material, or project documentation, Marp is an incredibly useful tool.

Without equivalent support, I immediately found myself returning to VS Code whenever presentation work appeared.

Foam Is Another Deal Breaker

The second issue was Foam.

Foam turns VS Code into a powerful knowledge-management system.

Features I rely on include:

• Wiki-style links
• Graph-based note taking
• Personal knowledge management
• Research organization
• Documentation networks

Over time, Foam became more than a note-taking tool for me. It became part of how I think about projects.

Whether I'm exploring blockchain architectures, distributed systems, networking concepts, or research ideas, Foam allows me to connect information naturally.

When I moved to Zed, I quickly realized how much of my workflow depended on these capabilities.

Speed Isn't Everything

To be clear:

Zed is significantly faster than VS Code in many situations.

The editor feels modern.

The collaborative features are impressive.

The architecture is promising.

But editor performance only matters after workflow requirements are satisfied.

A fast editor without the necessary tools often becomes slower in practice because developers constantly switch applications.

The VS Code Network Effect

The biggest challenge for Zed isn't technical.

It's ecosystem maturity.

VS Code has spent years building an enormous extension marketplace.

Whatever niche workflow a developer has, there is usually an extension for it.

Need:

• Kubernetes tools?
• Academic writing support?
• Embedded development?
• Presentation workflows?
• Knowledge management?
• Database exploration?
• Specialized language tooling?

Chances are somebody has already built an extension.

This creates a powerful network effect.

Developers adopt VS Code because extensions exist.

Extension authors build for VS Code because developers use it.

Breaking that cycle is extremely difficult.

Can Zed Catch Up?

Absolutely.

The editor is improving rapidly.

The team has built an impressive foundation.

If the extension API matures and the ecosystem grows, many of these gaps can eventually disappear.

But ecosystem development takes time.

Building an editor is hard.

Building an ecosystem is even harder.

My Current Position

After experimenting with multiple editors, I've ended up with a practical conclusion:

• Zed for watching the future.
• VS Code for getting work done today.

I genuinely want Zed to succeed.

Competition pushes the entire developer tooling ecosystem forward.

However, until essential workflows such as Marp, Foam, and other specialized extensions become first-class citizens, VS Code remains difficult to replace for developers whose work extends beyond writing source code.

The editor battle is no longer about text editing.

It's about ecosystems.

And in that race, VS Code still has a substantial lead.