Everyone wants AI in their editor now, and it's turned into a shitshow of choice paralysis. VS Code is still the safe bet but feels bloated, Zed is blazing fast but missing half the stuff you need, and Cursor burns through your credit card faster than AWS but actually makes you productive.
Look, they all work. The question is which flavor of pain you prefer when you're debugging at 2 AM and nothing makes sense.
VS Code: Still King But Getting Fat
Visual Studio Code is what 70% of developers use because it works, extensions exist for everything, and switching editors is a pain in the ass. But it's getting bloated as hell.
Microsoft treats AI like an afterthought with GitHub Copilot at $10/month. It works fine but feels like duct tape compared to editors built for AI from day one.
Here's what actually happens: VS Code starts at 200MB and grows to 4GB if you breathe on it wrong. I've seen it eat like 4-5 gigs on big TypeScript projects, sometimes more if you leave it running all day. And don't even think about opening Chrome with VS Code running - your laptop will sound like a jet engine and thermal throttle into the stone age. The search feature dies when you have 100k+ files, and don't get me started on the random freezes during TypeScript compilation.
The 40,000+ extensions are VS Code's superpower and its curse. You need GitLens and Prettier to be productive, but each extension makes startup slower and increases the chance something breaks.
VS Code is reliable but feels like coding with ankle weights. You know it works, but you also know you're not running at full speed.
Zed: Fast As Hell But Missing Stuff You Need
Zed said "screw Electron" and built everything in Rust. It's stupidly fast - starts instantly, never lags, and uses like 85MB of RAM while VS Code is hogging 2GB. The Atom team learned from their mistakes and built something that actually performs.
Zed saved my sanity when VS Code kept choking on big projects. That React monorepo that takes VS Code forever to open? Zed loads it instantly. Those massive log files that crash VS Code? Zed opens them and actually lets you search.
The collaboration features actually work. Meanwhile, VS Code's Live Share feels like it was designed by someone who's never actually pair programmed. Half the time it just silently stops sharing your cursor and you're typing into the void. Zed's real-time editing feels like Google Docs but for code - cursors move smoothly, voice chat doesn't suck, and you can actually get shit done together.
The catch? Zed's extension ecosystem is tiny compared to VS Code's. Windows support is still in development as of late 2025, and sometimes you need that one VS Code extension that doesn't exist in Zed land.
Zed's AI approach is refreshingly honest - it supports multiple providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, and local models without trying to lock you into their ecosystem. Bring your own API key and get to work.
Cursor: AI Magic With a Credit Card Requirement
Cursor said "screw it" and built the entire editor around AI from day one. It's VS Code but if VS Code actually understood what the hell you were trying to build instead of just autocompleting random garbage.
The @codebase feature is actual magic - ask "where the fuck is the auth code?" and it shows you exactly which files, which functions, and how they connect. No more grepping through 500 files trying to find where someone buried the password validation logic.
Here's where your credit card starts crying: One dev burned $510 in 30 days because Cursor's AI requests add up faster than AWS charges. But he also shipped features in hours that would have taken days, so the math worked out.
Current pricing:
- Free: 2,000 completions (runs out fast if you use AI heavily)
- Pro ($20/month): $20 worth of frontier model calls plus unlimited basic completions
- Business ($40/user/month): Team features and higher limits
Cursor's pricing model has evolved rapidly as the company scales AI usage costs. The challenge for AI-first editors is balancing feature access with sustainable pricing - something all these tools are still figuring out.
Composer mode is where Cursor gets scary good - tell it "add user authentication" and it writes the backend API, frontend forms, database migrations, and tests across 8 different files. It actually understands how full-stack apps work, not just individual functions.
The tradeoff: Cursor still runs on Electron like VS Code, so it's not as fast as Zed. Memory usage hits 300-800MB, but the AI features save you from installing 20 extensions that would make it even slower.
Which Editor Won't Ruin Your Day?
Just stick with VS Code when you've got 50 extensions installed and switching sounds like hell. Your company probably forces you to use it anyway, and that one obscure extension you need? Yeah, it only exists for VS Code. Don't mind waiting 5 seconds for startup and losing 2GB of RAM? You're set.
Try Zed if VS Code's sluggishness makes you want to throw your laptop out the window. Seriously, if you're tired of waiting 5 seconds for your editor to start, Zed boots instantly. Do pair programming and Live Share keeps shitting the bed? Zed's collaboration actually works. You care more about speed than having 1000 extensions? Perfect. Just make sure you're on Mac or Linux - Windows users still get to wait.
Pay for Cursor when you want AI that actually gets your codebase instead of random autocomplete garbage. $20-40/month hurts less than spending 3 hours debugging something AI could have caught. Are you shipping features fast enough to justify the cost? Then you're golden. Miss VS Code's ecosystem but want better AI? Cursor's got you covered.
The Real Talk
Look, VS Code works but it's slow as hell. Zed is fast but missing stuff. Cursor costs money but saves time. Pick your poison based on what annoys you least, because they all have problems.
VS Code is what most devs use because switching editors is a pain in the ass and it works well enough. But if you're tired of waiting 6 seconds for startup and watching your RAM disappear, Zed fixes that instantly.
Cursor? It's expensive but holy shit does the AI actually work. If you're shipping features faster than you're burning through API credits, the math works out. Otherwise, stick with VS Code and suffer through GitHub Copilot's mediocre suggestions.
The TypeScript language server will still randomly decide to use 100% CPU no matter which editor you pick. VS Code updates will break extensions. Zed will get a new update every week because it's still figuring shit out. Cursor's billing will surprise you if you're not watching usage.
Bottom line: There's no perfect choice. VS Code if you hate change, Zed if you hate waiting, Cursor if you hate debugging. They all suck in different ways, so pick the flavor of suck you can live with.