Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

VS Code VS ConEmu

Compare VS Code VS ConEmu and see what are their differences

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VS Code logo VS Code

Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft

ConEmu logo ConEmu

ConEmu-Maximus5 is a full-featured local terminal for Windows devs, admins and users. Get better console window with tabs, splits, Quake style, copy+paste, DosBox and PuTTY integration, and much more.
  • VS Code Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-10-09
  • ConEmu Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-22

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.

ConEmu features and specs

  • Customizability
    ConEmu offers a high degree of customizability, allowing users to tailor the interface, keyboard shortcuts, colors, and behavior to suit their workflow.
  • Tab Management
    The application supports multiple tabs, permitting users to manage various command-line sessions within a single window, enhancing multitasking capabilities.
  • Integrations
    ConEmu can integrate with various shells such as Command Prompt, PowerShell, Git Bash, Cygwin, and more, thus making it a versatile tool for a wide range of needs.
  • Quake-style Mode
    This feature allows users to quickly summon and hide the terminal with a specific key combination, similar to the drop-down console in Quake games.
  • Split View
    ConEmu offers split-view functionality, which allows users to see and interact with multiple terminal panes simultaneously.
  • Portable Mode
    The application can be used in portable mode, enabling users to carry their ConEmu settings and preferences across different machines without installation.

Possible disadvantages of ConEmu

  • Complex Setup
    For new users, the initial configuration can be somewhat complex and may require a steep learning curve to leverage all features effectively.
  • Windows Only
    ConEmu is exclusive to the Windows operating system, limiting its usage for individuals who work across multiple OS platforms.
  • Resource Intensive
    Compared to some lightweight terminal emulators, ConEmu can be more demanding on system resources, which may be a concern for users on lower-end hardware.
  • Occasional Stability Issues
    Some users have reported occasional crashes or instability, particularly when dealing with complex configurations or extensive usage.
  • Lack of Built-in SSH
    Unlike some terminal emulators, ConEmu does not come with built-in SSH capabilities, necessitating the use of third-party tools for SSH sessions.

Analysis of VS Code

Overall verdict

  • Yes, VS Code is generally considered a good choice for developers due to its flexibility, efficiency, and strong community support. It is lightweight, fast, and user-friendly, catering to both novice and experienced developers.

Why this product is good

  • VS Code, developed by Microsoft, is a widely popular and versatile code editor. It offers a robust extension ecosystem, which allows developers to customize their workflow and coding environment extensively. Additionally, VS Code supports numerous programming languages right out of the box and provides features like IntelliSense, debugging, Git integration, and a built-in terminal, making it a powerful tool for developers.

Recommended for

  • Web developers looking for a comprehensive yet lightweight coding environment.
  • Software developers who need an editor with extensive language support and customization options.
  • Beginner programmers who would benefit from a feature-rich editor that can grow with their skills.
  • Developers interested in an open-source tool with continuous updates and community-driven enhancements.

Analysis of ConEmu

Overall verdict

  • Yes, ConEmu is a good option for users seeking a powerful and customizable terminal emulator on Windows. Its feature-rich environment and active development community make it a solid choice.

Why this product is good

  • ConEmu is considered a good terminal emulator because it offers a wide range of features including extensive customization options, support for multiple tabs, and compatibility with various shells such as PowerShell, Command Prompt, and WSL. It enhances productivity by allowing users to configure hotkeys, split the terminal window, and create complex workflows, making it a versatile tool for developers and system administrators.

Recommended for

    ConEmu is recommended for developers, system administrators, and power users who need a flexible and feature-rich terminal emulator. It's particularly useful for users who frequently work with multiple command-line tools or need advanced window management capabilities.

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

ConEmu videos

Development Tools: ConEmu

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to VS Code and ConEmu)
Text Editors
100 100%
0% 0
SSH
0 0%
100% 100
IDE
100 100%
0% 0
Server Management
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using VS Code and ConEmu. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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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 ConEmu

VS Code Reviews

  1. dksinden
    ยท Working at SpeechKit ยท

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. Youโ€™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

ConEmu Reviews

7 Best Free Terminal Emulators For Windows 10/11 in 2022
It is free and open-source software that is built on the popular console emulator known as ConEmu. It is used to add enhancements from clink that provide bash style completion. Moreover, it also presents UNIX capabilities by extending them with PowerShell, MinnTTY, myysgit and Cygwin.
30 best PuTTY alternatives for SSH clients for 2020
Cmder is a straight-forward terminal emulator for Windows. The program runs on Windows and it is a combination of the ConEmu terminal emulation program with a Unix-like scripting language that works on Windows. The terminal emulator doesnโ€™t have any encryption, so it would only be suitable for connections on private networks. The tool also lacks a file transfer system.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, VS Code seems to be a lot more popular than ConEmu. While we know about 1215 links to VS Code, we've tracked only 19 mentions of ConEmu. 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 (1215)

  • History of JavaScript: Browser wars, ECMAScript, Node.js, TypeScript, and React
    Visual Studio Code, a code editor created by Microsoft, was first introduced on April 29, 2015, at the Build conference. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • How to Get Your First Tool Online
    The step up from there is an editor with a built-in agent like Cursor, Google Antigravity, Windsurf, or VS Code with a coding extension. These are code editors with an AI agent living inside them, and the difference is the responsible party for getting things from place to place. Instead of the software creator shuttling code between windows, the AI agent edits the project files directly and runs the GitHub and... - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Agentic Engineering: What Does AI Coding Really Cost?
    For IDE-heavy teams, BYOK (bring your own key) can be interesting, no matter whether you live in WebStorm or VS Code. On the JetBrains side, the JetBrains AI plans and Junie BYOK docs allow it, and most VS Code AI extensions offer the same idea: keep the IDE, connect provider keys, pay the provider. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Best Markdown Editors for Developers
    Option 1: Raw editing in IDE. You open the .md file in VS Code or whatever you use. Syntax highlighting shows you the structure. Maybe you toggle a preview pane. This works for quick edits but becomes painful for anything involving tables, diagrams, or complex formatting. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Document Generation for Developers: Security, Compliance, and Build-vs-Buy Decisions for the Template-Plus-Data Pipeline
    You'll need Python 3.8+ and pip for the quickstart, with venv recommended for isolation. Install the requests library for HTTP calls. VS Code with the Python extension works well as an editor, though PyCharm or Sublime Text work equally well. You'll also need a free Foxit developer account. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
View more

ConEmu mentions (19)

  • Dos Navigator โ€“ an orthodox file manager
    The sources for the awesome Dos Navigator are published on Github. An updated fork named Necromancer's Dos Navigator [NDN] can be found here: http://ndn.muxe.com/ An alternative to DN/NDN, that is in active development, is Far Manager: https://www.farmanager.com/ All of them, especially Far, work well in ConEmu (https://conemu.github.io/) or cmder (https://cmder.app/) Maybe interested people or nostalgic ones can... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Any user with Win 7 user + Vim at terminal+airline_with_Powerline_symbols?
    On Windows 7 your best bet is to install a modern terminal emulator like ConEmu: https://conemu.github.io/. Source: about 3 years ago
  • The amount of times I have accidentally done this...
    On my work system I have local admin but Windows Store is blocked by policy. One of my coworkers over on the DBA team had me install ConEmu which has some nice features similar to to Windows Terminal. Also, Posh-Git is a nice addition to have on top. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Name the tools you can't live without!
    Conemu if your a fan of that quake style terminal and tabbed terminals. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Steps of entering the IT world? Learn Python Or Operating systems first?
    If you do, try out this thing; https://conemu.github.io/. Source: over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing VS Code and ConEmu, 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.

MobaXterm - Enhanced terminal for Windows with X11 server, tabbed SSH client, network tools and much more

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

PuTTY - Popular free terminal application. Mostly used as an SSH client.

Node.js - Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications

GNOME Terminal - GNOME Terminal is a terminal emulator for GNOME desktop.