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Zed Editor Hands-On Review: How Powerful Is the So-Called Fastest Code Editor?

Xiaozha 3 tags
Color-highlighted program source code in a dark-themed code editor

Zed is a next-generation code editor released in 2024, built by the original team behind the Atom editor.

It’s written in Rust and is all about extreme performance plus native, real-time multiplayer collaboration.

After nearly two years of iteration, by 2026 Zed has become a rising star that the developer community is paying close attention to.

This article is a deep, hands-on review of Zed’s features, looking at whether it can really replace VS Code.

1. Core Features

Extreme Performance

Zed uses GPU-accelerated rendering, and combined with Rust’s high-performance capabilities, it shows clear advantages in startup speed, file-opening speed, and editing large files.

In my tests, opening a 10MB log file takes Zed almost no time at all, while VS Code needs 2-3 seconds.

Native Real-Time Collaboration

Zed ships with built-in real-time collaboration. Without installing a single plugin, you can invite teammates to edit code together.

It supports voice calls and screen sharing, giving you a Google Docs-like coding experience.

For remote teams, this is a killer feature.

AI Integration

Zed natively integrates AI-assisted coding, supporting OpenAI, Anthropic, and local models (such as Ollama).

Compared with VS Code, where you’d need to install Copilot or Cursor, Zed’s AI features are built in and much simpler to set up.

Modern Design

Zed’s UI is clean and modern, built with native interface elements instead of Electron.

Its theme system is based on CSS, so customization is flexible.

The overall look sits somewhere between VS Code and Sublime Text — both attractive and practical.

2. Comparison with VS Code

Advantages

  • Startup speed: Zed under 1 second vs VS Code’s 2-3 seconds
  • Memory usage: Zed roughly 200MB vs VS Code 500MB+
  • Large file handling: noticeably smoother in Zed
  • Native collaboration: no extra configuration needed
  • UI responsiveness: smoother scrolling and animations

Disadvantages

  • Plugin ecosystem: nowhere near as rich as VS Code’s (though it’s growing fast)
  • Debugging: support for some languages is still being polished
  • Remote development: SSH remote editing is relatively weak
  • macOS only (Windows and Linux versions are in development)

3. Real-World Usage

In everyday development, Zed’s editing experience is very smooth.

Code completion, go-to-definition, and refactoring are all on par with VS Code.

Its multi-cursor editing and vim mode support are especially worth calling out — a big win for developers who live on the keyboard.

That said, if you rely on specific plugins (like the Docker or Kubernetes extensions), Zed still can’t fully replace VS Code right now.

My suggestion: make Zed your primary editor, and keep VS Code around as a complement for specific scenarios.

4. Summary

Zed is an editor worth getting excited about. In terms of performance and collaboration, it has already surpassed VS Code, but its plugin ecosystem still needs time to mature.

If you’re on macOS and mostly work with mainstream languages (Rust, Go, TypeScript, Python), Zed is already good enough to be your daily driver.

For developers who depend heavily on plugins, it’s worth holding off and migrating once the ecosystem matures.

ZedVS CodeDevelopment Tools