
VS Code
Cursor
Sublime Text
Windsurf Editor
Notepad++
VSCodium
Vim
Zed is a high-performance, multiplayer code editor from the creators of Atom and Tree-sitter.

GitKraken
SourceTree
SmartGit
Fork
Tower
TortoiseGit
GitHub
GitHub Desktop is a seamless way to contribute to projects on GitHub and GitHub Enterprise.

Which is more popular?
GitHub Desktop might be a bit more popular than Zed. We know about 136 links to it since March 2021 and only 98 links to Zed.
Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Website | zed.dev | desktop.github.com |
| Pricing | ||
| Listed in |
What each product offers, as listed by its team.


Possible disadvantages
Possible disadvantages
An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.


Overall verdict
Why this product is good
Recommended for
Developers looking for a collaborative and fast code editor with a modern interface would benefit from using Zed. It is especially suited for teams that require real-time collaboration capabilities.
No analysis of GitHub Desktop yet.
Walkthroughs and reviews on video.
Zed “kills” VSCode
More videos
GitHub Desktop 2.0 -- Easy Mode Version Control
More videos
How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.


Share your experience with using Zed and GitHub Desktop. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
External articles and on-site reviews we used to compare the two products.


We have no reviews of Zed yet. Be the first one to post
Creating branches and switching to existing ones isn’t a hassle, so is merging code with the master branch. Furthermore, you can track your changes with GitHub Desktop. Check out our detailed guide on how to use...
GitHub Desktop is the global standard for working with Git-related tasks in a graphical user interface (GUI). It is an open-source tool and hence completely free to use for all sorts of projects. It is available for...
GitHub Desktop is, perhaps, the most famous solution for working with Git in a visual interface. It is familiar to all developers keeping their repositories on GitHub (Git repository hosting service used for...
Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.


GPUI caught my attention because it's the framework behind Zed, and I really like the idea of building native desktop interfaces with Rust. - Source: dev.to / 12 days ago
Zed keeps showing up as well, both for its agent integrations and as a fast, light editor for when a human needs to edit or clean up what the agent wrote. - Source: dev.to / 12 days ago
I use Zed (https://zed.dev) as my agent harness and either the $20 ChatGPT sub + Sol for personal/independent projects or an enterprise Claude account for sponsored/paid work. It's pretty simple, you could probably set up something like... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
Optional: You can also download GitHub Desktop (https://desktop.github.com) if you prefer a GUI version, but this guide focuses on Git Bash to understand the basics. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
Download the latest version from the GitHub Desktop website. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
I’m not going to dive into Git commands here — you can find plenty of tutorials online. If you’re not a fan of using the plain terminal CLI, you can also manage repositories with tools like GitHub Desktop or SourceTree, which provide a... - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
When comparing Zed and GitHub Desktop, you can also consider the following products.

Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft
Compare VS Code to Zed or GitHub Desktop:

The intuitive, fast, and beautiful cross-platform Git client.
Compare GitKraken to Zed or GitHub Desktop:

The AI-first Code Editor. Build software faster in an editor designed for pair-programming with AI.
Compare Cursor to Zed or GitHub Desktop:

Mac and Windows client for Mercurial and Git.
Compare SourceTree to Zed or GitHub Desktop:

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.
Compare Sublime Text to Zed or GitHub Desktop:

SmartGit is a front-end for the distributed version control system Git and runs on Windows, Mac OS...
Compare SmartGit to Zed or GitHub Desktop: