Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Neovim VS Spacemacs

Compare Neovim VS Spacemacs and see what are their differences

Neovim logo Neovim

Vim's rebirth for the 21st century

Spacemacs logo Spacemacs

Community-driven Emacs distribution that meshes Emacs and Vim features.
  • Neovim Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-23
  • Spacemacs Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-04-26

Neovim features and specs

  • Extensibility
    Neovim is designed to be highly extensible with a robust API that allows for the development of custom plugins, making it easy to tailor the editor to individual workflows.
  • Asynchronous Plugins
    Support for asynchronous plugins enables smoother and faster performance by allowing tasks like linting and autocomplete to run in the background without freezing the editor.
  • Modern Codebase
    The refactored codebase improves maintainability and introduces new features more efficiently compared to the original Vim.
  • Compatibility
    Neovim maintains compatibility with existing Vim plugins and configuration, making it easier for users to transition from Vim.
  • Improved User Interface
    Neovim provides better support for modern terminal features, GUI interfaces, and offers features like an embedded terminal emulator.

Possible disadvantages of Neovim

  • Lack of Official GUI
    Neovim does not come with an official graphical user interface (GUI), which means users who prefer a graphical experience may need to rely on third-party options.
  • Smaller Community
    Although growing, Neovimโ€™s community is smaller compared to Vim, which means fewer community-created resources and plugins.
  • Learning Curve
    New users might find Neovimโ€™s highly customizable nature and reliance on configuration files challenging, especially if they are not familiar with Vim-type editors.
  • Potential Instability
    Frequent updates and changes can sometimes introduce bugs or instability, which may affect users who rely on a stable environment for their work.
  • Plugin Compatibility
    While most Vim plugins work, some could have compatibility issues or require modification to work with Neovim, necessitating additional effort from the user.

Spacemacs features and specs

  • Customizability
    Spacemacs is highly customizable, leveraging the power of Emacs and Vim. Users can tailor their development environment to exactly fit their workflow.
  • Community-driven
    Spacemacs benefits from a strong, active community. Users have access to a wealth of shared configurations, extensions, and advice.
  • Hybrid Model
    Combines the best features of Emacs and Vim, allowing users to switch easily between editing styles and take advantage of both systemsโ€™ strengths.
  • Ease of Setup
    Spacemacs provides an easy-to-use distribution of Emacs, simplifying the initial setup process and making it more accessible for newcomers.
  • Rich Documentation
    Spacemacs comes with extensive documentation, both official and user-generated, which makes it easier to learn and troubleshoot issues.

Possible disadvantages of Spacemacs

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Despite simplifying Emacs, Spacemacs can still be daunting for beginners, requiring time and effort to master.
  • Performance
    Spacemacs can be slow to start up and may lag with heavy configurations or large files, impacting overall performance.
  • Complexity
    The combination of Emacs and Vim features can add layers of complexity, potentially overwhelming users who may prefer a more straightforward tool.
  • Dependency on Emacs
    Users are still reliant on Emacs and its ecosystem, which might be a downside for those looking to avoid the intricacies of Emacs altogether.
  • Resource Intensive
    Compared to other editors, Spacemacs can be more resource-intensive, consuming more memory and CPU power.

Analysis of Neovim

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Neovim is considered good by many developers, especially those who appreciate Vim's modal editing capabilities but seek a more modern and extensible platform.

Why this product is good

  • Neovim is a highly configurable text editor built to be an improved version of Vim. It offers enhanced performance, extensibility through plugins, and better integration with modern development tools. Its user-friendly Lua configuration system makes customization easier.

Recommended for

  • Developers who like Vim but want more features and flexibility
  • Programmers seeking a lightweight and fast code editor
  • Individuals interested in customizing their development environment through plugins
  • Users who prefer using the command line
  • People looking for an editor with a strong and active community support

Analysis of Spacemacs

Overall verdict

  • Spacemacs is considered a strong editor choice for those comfortable with both Emacs and Vim. It excels particularly for users who appreciate the extensive possibilities for customization and the efficiency of a mnemonic keybinding system. However, mastering Spacemacs can require an initial learning curve.

Why this product is good

  • Spacemacs combines the extensibility and customization of Emacs with the efficiency and ergonomics of Vim, making it appealing to users from both editor families. It offers a rich set of features out of the box and has a large community contributing to its continual improvement. The unique spacemacs configuration layer system simplifies the customization of Emacs, which can traditionally be complex.<br>Most notably, Spacemacs provides a robust and versatile platform for developers who work with multiple programming languages and requires tools that can handle various aspects of software development in a fluid manner.

Recommended for

  • Developers with prior experience in Emacs or Vim.
  • Users who are interested in a highly customizable and extendable editor.
  • Programmers looking for an editor that supports multiple languages and dev tools in one platform.
  • People interested in the power of both Vim's modal editing and Emacs' feature-rich ecosystem.

Neovim videos

What is Neovim, and why should you care?

More videos:

Spacemacs videos

Spacemacs For Noobs

More videos:

  • Review - Can VSCode be a reasonable Spacemacs alternative? (VSpaceCode)
  • Review - EmacsCast 4 - Spacemacs vs Doom vs Emacs

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Neovim and Spacemacs)
Text Editors
77 77%
23% 23
IDE
80 80%
20% 20
Software Development
83 83%
17% 17
Productivity
50 50%
50% 50

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Neovim and Spacemacs

Neovim Reviews

We have no reviews of Neovim yet.
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Spacemacs Reviews

Top 8 Sublime Text Alternatives You Can Use in 2019
Spacemacs uses the space bar as a default leader key, which is where the program gets its name from. The syntax highlighting feature on Spacemacs is enabled by default for all major programming languages, and it is configurable manually through configuration files as well as via internal commands. For all its positives, the program can be quite a bit glitchy at times. From...
Source: beebom.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Neovim seems to be a lot more popular than Spacemacs. While we know about 112 links to Neovim, we've tracked only 6 mentions of Spacemacs. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Neovim mentions (112)

  • Microsoft: An Open-Source Comedy
    Microsoft vscode's Marketplace is where you can find extensions, themes, etc. And basically it's what turns vscode from a simple text editor to a powerful IDE. A few weeks ago I noticed that marketplace has stopped working on vscodium, and as a result I can't install new extensions or update the ones I had already installed. I did some research, and I realised it's not a bug, it's a new evil move from Microsoft.... - Source: dev.to / 14 days ago
  • How to connect Shopify to Notion
    Now you can use your favorite editor to edit your Gadget app's code. Changes sync back to Gadget in real-time. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Every Developer Should Try Vim
    Vim is a highly efficient, keyboard-driven text editor that prioritizes speed, precision, and control. Itโ€™s been around for decades, but itโ€™s far from outdated. In recent years, Vim has seen a resurgence, thanks largely to Neovim, a modern refactor of Vim that brings a faster core, better plugin support, and a vibrant, forward-looking community. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • 6 Reasons CLI Coding Agents Are the Future of Software Development
    A text-based shell interface is extremely lightweight compared to modern IDEs. Because it runs in the terminal, even a feature-rich agent has very low overhead. According to Forgecode โ€œLow Resource Usage: minimal impact on system performanceโ€. In contrast, a full IDE can consume hundreds of megabytes of RAM or more, even when idle. In one user benchmark, Neovim (a terminal editor) used only about 10 MB of RAM,... - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • My Tech Stack in 2025
    PDE (Personalized Development Environment): Neovim. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
View more

Spacemacs mentions (6)

  • Our teacher only allows us to use VIM
    Show them spacemacs.org, github.com/doomemacs/doomemacs or at least spacevim.org. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Creating Haskell notebooks with org-mode
    Your Emacs will need some packages: org, org-babel and haskell-mode. If you use spacemacs it is enough to add these layers in your .spacemacs:. - Source: dev.to / about 4 years ago
  • Vim Users! Share your Clever Configs and Plugin Setups (or learn something new)๐Ÿ”ฅ
    Try https://spacemacs.org magit + org-mode are the big selling points. Magit especially for programming. Source: about 4 years ago
  • Emacs' org-mode gets citation support
    Aside from editing on mobile devices, I think Emacs isn't as hard to pick up as it once was. It's certainly not easy but tools like Spacemacs or Doom make it much simpler to get started and really limit the need to create and edit a complicated little library of your Elisp code. http://spacemacs.org https://github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs. - Source: Hacker News / about 4 years ago
  • A guide to create tmux like Custom Layouts in Spacemacs
    Coming from a vim world with tmux, I had really missed the multiple split window layout in Spacemacs. But after knowing how to define custom layouts this seemed to be an easy exercise for me. - Source: dev.to / over 4 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Neovim and Spacemacs, you can also consider the following products

VS Code - Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft

GNU Emacs - GNU Emacs is an extensible, customizable text editorโ€”and more.

Vim - Highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing

Sublime Text - Sublime Text is a sophisticated text editor for code, html and prose - any kind of text file. You'll love the slick user interface and extraordinary features. Fully customizable with macros, and syntax highlighting for most major languages.

Kakoune - Vim inspiredรขย€ย‰รขย€ย”รขย€ย‰Faster as in less keystrokesรขย€ย‰รขย€ย”รขย€ย‰Multiple selectionsรขย€ย‰รขย€ย”รขย€ย‰Orthogonal design

Notepad++ - A free source code editor which supports several programming languages running under the MS Windows environment.