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VS Code VS Monaco Editor

Compare VS Code VS Monaco Editor 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

Monaco Editor logo Monaco Editor

A browser based code editor
  • VS Code Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-10-09
  • Monaco Editor Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-23

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.

Monaco Editor features and specs

  • Rich Features
    Monaco Editor provides a wide array of features like syntax highlighting, IntelliSense, code folding, etc., making it a powerful option for code editing.
  • Extensibility
    The editor is highly extensible, allowing developers to customize and extend its functionalities to suit their specific needs.
  • VS Code Integration
    As the core editor used in Visual Studio Code, Monaco Editor inherits many of the capabilities and optimizations from VS Code, ensuring robust performance.
  • Web-Based
    Being a web-based editor, it can be easily integrated into web applications, making it highly accessible across different platforms.
  • Large Community
    Monaco Editor benefits from a large community and strong backing from Microsoft, ensuring ongoing development and support.

Possible disadvantages of Monaco Editor

  • Large Bundle Size
    The initial bundle size of the Monaco Editor can be quite large, which may impact the loading time of web applications using it.
  • Complexity
    Due to its rich feature set, the Monaco Editor can be complex to integrate and configure for new developers.
  • Browser Limitations
    Since it is a web-based tool, it might face performance limitations or issues in specific browsers or older versions.
  • Limited Mobile Support
    Monaco Editor is not optimized for mobile usage, potentially leading to a subpar experience on mobile devices.

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

Monaco Editor videos

No Monaco Editor videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to VS Code and Monaco Editor)
Text Editors
97 97%
3% 3
IDE
99 99%
1% 1
Developer Tools
96 96%
4% 4
Software Development
98 98%
2% 2

User comments

Share your experience with using VS Code and Monaco Editor. 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 Monaco Editor

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

Monaco Editor Reviews

We have no reviews of Monaco Editor yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, VS Code seems to be a lot more popular than Monaco Editor. While we know about 1138 links to VS Code, we've tracked only 49 mentions of Monaco Editor. 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 / 3 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 / 7 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 / 9 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 / 27 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

Monaco Editor mentions (49)

  • Integrate VS Code editor in your project! Monaco Editor 🚀
    Monaco editor by Microsoft @monaco-editor/react Happy coding! 😃. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • An experiment in UI density created with Svelte
    VS Code Editor which is based on Electron, is really fast, even with large codebase & many open tabs. Their monaco engine (https://microsoft.github.io/monaco-editor/) uses custom, virtual code processor that is optimized for surgically updating underlying DOM. It also uses WebGL + canvas rendering to show minimap of the file. Similar approach (custom virtual processor) is leveraged by Google docs/sheets. Canvas... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • A structured note-taking app for personal use
    Fyi, if you are ever looking for a fun project you might be able to implement this. The vscode editor source is available as a library https://microsoft.github.io/monaco-editor/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • GIGO and VS-code: the Battle With Microsoft
    VScode uses the monaco-editor to display all editor screens in vscode including the markdown editor. A simple solution is to use the in built markdown file editor and call it a day. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • NPM workspace and vite - Read dependency build output (d.ts file)
    So lets say the project consists of two packages Lib and App in which Lib is a library and App is the frontend app which depends on Lib. Now I want to display a monaco powered code editor in App which has has access to all types of Lib. This means that I have to somehow read the *.d.ts file of Lib as a string to set it as "extra lib" for monaco. Source: over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing VS Code and Monaco Editor, 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.

CSS Scan - Instantly check or copy computed CSS from any element for only ~95$

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

CodePen - A front end web development playground.

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

IntelliJ IDEA - Capable and Ergonomic IDE for JVM