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VS Code VS OpenAI Codex CLI

Compare VS Code VS OpenAI Codex CLI and see what are their differences

VS Code logo VS Code

Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft

OpenAI Codex CLI logo OpenAI Codex CLI

Frontier reasoning in the terminal
  • VS Code Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-10-09
Not present

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.

OpenAI Codex CLI features and specs

  • Efficiency
    Codex CLI allows developers to generate code snippets quickly, improving productivity and reducing the time spent on manual coding tasks.
  • Ease of Use
    With natural language processing capabilities, Codex CLI allows users to interact with the tool using simple commands, making it accessible even for those with limited programming knowledge.
  • Integration
    Codex CLI can be integrated into various development environments, allowing seamless transition between AI-assisted coding and traditional coding workflows.
  • Iterative Feedback
    The CLI provides immediate feedback on code input, which helps developers quickly understand and iterate on their implementations.
  • Versatility
    Codex CLI supports a wide range of programming languages and paradigms, making it useful in diverse coding scenarios.

Possible disadvantages of OpenAI Codex CLI

  • Accuracy Limitations
    The generated code may not always be perfectly accurate or optimized, requiring manual review and adjustments by experienced developers.
  • Dependency on Internet
    Since Codex CLI relies on online resources to function, its usability can be affected by internet connectivity issues.
  • Learning Curve
    While designed for simplicity, there is still a learning curve associated with understanding the limitations and best use cases for Codex CLI.
  • Ethical Concerns
    Relying on AI for code generation could raise concerns about the originality of code, intellectual property rights, and potential biases in the training data.
  • Cost
    Depending on OpenAI's pricing model, using Codex CLI might involve costs that can accumulate, especially for large-scale or long-term projects.

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.

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

OpenAI Codex CLI videos

OpenAI Codex CLI

More videos:

  • Review - My Honest Review of OpenAI Codex CLI - Is It Worth It?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to VS Code and OpenAI Codex CLI)
Text Editors
99 99%
1% 1
Developer Tools
98 98%
2% 2
IDE
100 100%
0% 0
AI
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 OpenAI Codex CLI

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

OpenAI Codex CLI Reviews

We have no reviews of OpenAI Codex CLI yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, VS Code seems to be a lot more popular than OpenAI Codex CLI. While we know about 1177 links to VS Code, we've tracked only 15 mentions of OpenAI Codex CLI. 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 (1177)

  • Improve Your Git Commit Messages with GitLens Tips
    To generate the commit messages, first of all, you have to change your codebase ๐Ÿ˜Ž After that, when you are ready to commit, itโ€™s time to generate the message. To do that, you need to go to the Source Control panel in VSCode, and if you have the GitLens extension installed, you can use the โ€œMagicโ€ icon to generate the message. - Source: dev.to / 1 day ago
  • How to upload SDI FatturaPA invoices with C#
    We use the dotnet tool and VS Code as they are available on most systems, but you can follow along with your favourite IDE (Visual Studio, Rider, etc.) if you prefer. - Source: dev.to / 3 days ago
  • An Experiment with AI Assisted Web Development
    As a productive learning exercise, I spent the last couple of evenings taking Cursor (the desktop code editor that is a fork of VS Code) for a spin to build a new web app I needed for a side project โ€“ a system to manage charity raffle tickets at the 2025 Melbourne Pen & Stationery Show I am helping to run soon. - Source: dev.to / 4 days ago
  • Go (Golang) - Environment Setup
    Download: Get it from its official site: code.visualstudio.com. - Source: dev.to / 6 days ago
  • Microsoft: An Open-Source Comedy
    Since the beginning of opensource ideology, Microsoft has been one of those companies that no one ever expected to join the cause. Weirdly enough, They did! By making PowerShell opensource, and more important than that: by introducing Visual Studio Code to the world of programming. Microsoft vscode is one the fastest text editors out there and, thanks to its massive list of extensions, one of the best most-used... - Source: dev.to / 14 days ago
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OpenAI Codex CLI mentions (15)

  • Building a Rust API with Claude Sonnet 4.5
    Sonnet has proven itself to be very powerful and capable of handling complex tasks, but lately the community were claiming that Claude is slowly getting worse and it's not as good as it first was. This is especially after OpenAI released their leading coding model Codex model for their open source Codex CLI. - Source: dev.to / 3 days ago
  • No โ€œresumeโ€ in Codex CLI, so I built one: quickly โ€œcontinueโ€ with `codex-history-list`
    Codex CLI is an AI coding agent that runs in your terminal, but thereโ€™s still no official โ€œresumeโ€ feature. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Codex CLI: Running GPT-OSS and Local Coding Models with Ollama, LM Studio, and MLX
    This file allows you to configure providers and create profiles for different models. Some options arenโ€™t fully documented yet, but you can explore the Codex source code for details. You can also configure MCP servers here. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • GPT-5 for Developers
    You are looking for Codex CLI [0]. 0 - https://github.com/openai/codex. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • OpenAI Open Models
    Inference in Python uses harmony [1] (for request and response format) which is written in Rust with Python bindings. Another OpenAI's Rust libraries is tiktoken [2], used for all tokenization and detokenization. OpenAI Codex [3] is also written in Rust. It looks like OpenAI is increasingly adopting Rust (at least for inference). [1] https://github.com/openai/harmony [2] https://github.com/openai/tiktoken [3]... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing VS Code and OpenAI Codex CLI, 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.

Zed - Zed is a high-performance, multiplayer code editor from the creators of Atom and Tree-sitter.

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

Awesome ChatGPT Prompts - Game Genie for ChatGPT

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

DeepWiki by Congnition - Understand Any GitHub Repo with AI Wikis