Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

VS Code VS Amazon CodeWhisperer

Compare VS Code VS Amazon CodeWhisperer and see what are their differences

VS Code logo VS Code

Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft

Amazon CodeWhisperer logo Amazon CodeWhisperer

Amazon CodeWhisperer is a machine learning (ML)–powered service that helps improve developer productivity by generating code recommendations based on their comments in natural language and code in the integrated development environment (IDE).
  • VS Code Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-10-09
  • Amazon CodeWhisperer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-01

VS Code features and specs

  • Cross-platform
    VS Code works on Windows, macOS, and Linux, providing a consistent development experience across different operating systems.
  • Extensibility
    A vast library of extensions allows users to add functionalities like debuggers, linters, and themes, making it highly customizable.
  • Integrated Git
    Built-in Git integration makes it easy to manage version control tasks directly within the editor.
  • Performance
    Lightweight compared to full-fledged IDEs, ensuring good performance even on systems with limited resources.
  • IntelliSense
    Advanced code completion and refactoring tools help improve coding efficiency and reduce errors.
  • Community Support
    A strong and active community provides extensive support, tutorials, and third-party extensions.
  • Debugging
    Robust debugging tools for various languages and frameworks are available out of the box.
  • Free and Open-Source
    VS Code is completely free to use and open-source, which is beneficial for both individual developers and organizations.

Possible disadvantages of VS Code

  • Limited IDE Features
    While extensible, it may lack some advanced features found in dedicated IDEs out of the box.
  • Extension Management
    Managing and configuring a large number of extensions can become cumbersome and sometimes lead to performance issues.
  • Learning Curve
    Although user-friendly, it has a steeper learning curve for beginners due to its numerous features and customization options.
  • Memory Usage
    Despite being lightweight, it can consume a significant amount of memory when multiple extensions are installed.
  • Update Frequency
    Frequent updates may sometimes introduce bugs or require users to adapt to new changes quickly.
  • Internet Dependency
    Some features and extensions may require an internet connection to function optimally.
  • Telemetry
    By default, VS Code collects usage data, which might be a concern for users sensitive about data privacy. However, this can be disabled.

Amazon CodeWhisperer features and specs

  • Enhanced Productivity
    Amazon CodeWhisperer helps developers write code faster by providing suggestions and code completions, reducing the time spent on routine coding tasks.
  • AI-Powered Assistance
    Utilizes machine learning algorithms to understand context and offer relevant code suggestions, improving the quality of code and helping developers with problem-solving.
  • Integration with AWS Services
    Seamlessly integrates with AWS services, making it easier for developers to build applications on the AWS platform by providing context-aware code recommendations.
  • Support for Multiple Programming Languages
    Supports a variety of programming languages, allowing a wider range of developers to benefit from its features.
  • Consistent Learning
    Continuously learns from new code and user interactions, enhancing its accuracy and usefulness over time.

Possible disadvantages of Amazon CodeWhisperer

  • Dependency on Internet Connection
    Requires a stable internet connection to access the cloud-based AI models for providing code suggestions, which can be a limitation in disconnected environments.
  • Potential Learning Curve
    Developers may need some time to get accustomed to utilizing AI-assisted coding, which may temporarily affect productivity.
  • Privacy Concerns
    Relying on cloud-based AI solutions may raise privacy and security concerns, especially when dealing with sensitive codebases.
  • Not 100% Accurate
    AI-generated code suggestions may not always be accurate or optimal, requiring developers to critically review and edit code.
  • Limited Offline Functionality
    Since it's primarily cloud-based, its features and capabilities might be limited or unavailable offline.

VS Code videos

My New Favorite Text Editor - Visual Studio Code

More videos:

  • Review - 7 reasons why I switched to Visual Studio Code from Sublime Text

Amazon CodeWhisperer videos

Amazon CodeWhisperer In Use and Vs GitHub CoPilot

More videos:

  • Review - AWS Announces Amazon CodeWhisperer | Your New Coding Companion
  • Review - AWS On Air ft. Introducing Amazon CodeWhisperer | AWS Events

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to VS Code and Amazon CodeWhisperer)
Text Editors
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
96 96%
4% 4
IDE
100 100%
0% 0
Code Autocomplete
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare VS Code and Amazon CodeWhisperer

VS Code Reviews

  1. dksinden
    · Working at SpeechKit ·

Boost Your Productivity with These Top Text Editors and IDEs
Visual Studio Code, commonly known as VS Code, is a powerful and extensible code editor developed by Microsoft. With its rich ecosystem of extensions and features like IntelliSense, debugging, and Git integration, VS Code enhances your coding productivity.
Source: convesio.com
13 Best Text Editors to Speed up Your Workflow
Finally, the Visual Studio Code website has numerous tabs for you to learn about the software. The documentation page walks you through steps like the setup and working with different languages. You’re also able to check out some tips and tricks and learn all of the Visual Studio Code keyboard shortcuts. Along with a blog, updates page, extensions library and API...
Source: kinsta.com
Jupyter Notebook & 10 Alternatives: Data Notebook Review [2023]
Previously, VS Code was more suited to developers or engineers due to its lack of data analysis capabilities, but since 2020, the VS Code team has collaborated with the Jupyter team to create an integrated notebook within VS Code. The end result is a fantastic IDE workbook for data analysis.
Source: lakefs.io
The Best IDEs for Java Development: A Comparative Analysis
Overview: Although not a traditional IDE, VS Code has gained popularity as a lightweight code editor.
Source: dev.to
20 Best Diff Tools to Compare File Contents on Linux
Visual studio code is a code editor made by Microsoft. It supports several development operations like debugging, task running, and version control. It works on Linux, macOS and Windows operating systems.
Source: linuxopsys.com

Amazon CodeWhisperer Reviews

10 Best Github Copilot Alternatives in 2024
Amazon CodeWhisperer is an AI code completion tool that helps developers write code faster and with fewer errors. If you’re looking for a GitHub Copilot alternative, Amazon CodeWhisperer is a strong choice, especially for developers already using AWS.
The Best GitHub Copilot Alternatives for Developers
CodeWhisperer is an AI code generator tool launched by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2022. It was based on large language models (LLMs) and trained on a billion lines of code from open-source repositories, internal Amazon repositories, API docs, and forums. Using ML and AI algorithms, CodeWhisperer analyzes code in real-time and generates suggestions from snippets to full...
Source: softteco.com
6 GitHub Copilot Alternatives You Should Know
Amazon CodeWhisperer, developed by AWS, is an AI-driven coding assistant designed to help developers write code more efficiently. It too is based on LLMs and was trained based on Amazon’s proprietary code and open source libraries. CodeWhisperer provides code recommendations based on the context of the code and the comments written by the developer. It supports multiple...
Source: swimm.io
Top 31 ChatGPT alternatives that will blow your mind in 2023 (Free & Paid)
Amazon has developed an exclusive alternative of ChatGPT called Codewhisperer to give developers an efficient way to pinpoint, comprehend and debug code problems.
Source: writesonic.com
Top 10 GitHub Copilot Alternatives
Amazon CodeWhisperer, driven by machine learning (ML), assists developers in increasing productivity by producing code recommendations based on their natural language comments and code in the integrated development environment (IDE).
Source: hashdork.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, VS Code seems to be a lot more popular than Amazon CodeWhisperer. While we know about 1138 links to VS Code, we've tracked only 28 mentions of Amazon CodeWhisperer. 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.

VS Code mentions (1138)

  • Why Understanding, Not Just Generating Code, Still Matters
    To do this, I used VS Code, an extension called Cline configured in Act mode, and Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 03-25, which is amazing. I made two attempts. The first one using a simple and very generic prompt, and a second one using a more detailed prompt. Let’s talk about them. - Source: dev.to / 2 days ago
  • 🚀 Your First Setup Win: Python and VS Code on Mac (Beginner Friendly)
    I visited code.visualstudio.com and clicked the big, inviting "Download for Mac" button. After downloading, I opened the .zip file, dragged the VS Code app into my Applications folder, and launched it. - Source: dev.to / 6 days ago
  • Vibe coding a GO CLI to extract data from articles
    For this challenge we will use Visual Studio Code and Anthropic Claude (Claude 3.7 Sonnet). Also, Go lang must be installed. I am running Fedora Linux. - Source: dev.to / 8 days ago
  • How to Run and Debug Tests in VS Code (With Keploy Integration)
    VS Code installed on your machine (available from here). - Source: dev.to / 26 days ago
  • Get Started with DeepSeek API for FREE: Guide with Multiple Tools!🔥
    Get your hands on VS Code by downloading it from the official website - your new coding command center. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
View more

Amazon CodeWhisperer mentions (28)

  • What Would a Live Stream Look Like on a Commodore 64?
    This morning my buddy Raymond Camden shared a fun little experiment. He has been playing around with a bit of "vibe coding", and decided to ask Claude to create a simple HTML file to take an image from the DOM and generate a "pixel art" version of that image. I was immediately curious if I could get Amazon Q Developer to create a similar demo to pixelate a webcam in real-time. This led me down quite a fun path... - Source: dev.to / 2 days ago
  • Turbo Charge the Amazon Q Developer CLI with MCP Servers
    If you have not yet discovered Amazon Q Developer, I encourage you to install it and try it out. Like all good generative-AI powered coding assistants, it can integrate with your favorite IDE and provide invaluable assistance to you while you develop your projects. It also includes the Amazon Q Developer CLI, which is a command line based assistant that you can launch with q chat from your favorite terminal. As of... - Source: dev.to / 4 days ago
  • Amazon Q Developer CLI: New AI Coding Agent Enhances Experience
    To explore these capabilities, visit Amazon Q Developer and check the AWS regions where this feature is available. - Source: dev.to / 9 days ago
  • How I built a spelling game with AWS Serverless and GenAI
    For the frontend, I have used a simple single page application built with Vue.js. I have very limited knowledge on frontend technologies. Because of that, I used Amazon Q Developer on VSCode to implement the frontend application. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Hands-On Amazon Q Developer Latest Features - /dev, /review, /doc, /test, /transform
    AWS re:Invent 2024 brought with it a lot of surprises, one of them being big updates to its Generative AI (GenAI) assistant for software development, Amazon Q Developer. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing VS Code and Amazon CodeWhisperer, you can also consider the following products

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.

GitHub Copilot - Your AI pair programmer. With GitHub Copilot, get suggestions for whole lines or entire functions right inside your editor.

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

Codeium - Free AI-powered code completion for *everyone*, *everywhere*

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

Tabnine - TabNine is the all-language autocompleter. We use deep learning to help you write code faster.