Zed

The Fastest AI Code Editor

4.9•54 reviews•

1.5K followers

The Fastest AI Code Editor

4.9•54 reviews•

1.5K followers

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Code editors

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AI Code Editors

Zed is a next-generation code editor designed for high-performance collaboration with humans and AI.

Zed Reviews

The community submitted 54 reviews to tell us what they like about Zed, what Zed can do better, and more.

4.9

Based on 54 reviews

Review Zed?

Reviewers consistently praise Zed for speed, low memory use, and a clean, focused interface that stays out of the way, with several saying it runs well even on older machines and handles search, linting, and large projects quickly. Users also like its built-in language tooling, AI features, and collaboration support, though many still treat it as lighter than VS Code or JetBrains for heavier workflows. The main drawbacks are a thinner extension ecosystem, some rough edges in Vim setup and navigation, and uneven language support, especially for Python.

+51

Summarized with AI

Pros

fast performance (16)

clean interface (5)

collaboration features (4)

lightweight (3)

not bloated (3)

cross-language support (2)

memory efficient (2)

minimal design (2)

open source (2)

Cons

limited extensions (3)

Pros

Cons

Reviews

All Reviews

Most Informative

•1 review

What's great

fast performance (16)lightweight (3)open source (2)clean interface (5)memory efficient (2)integrated-lsp (1)

I've been daily driving this as my IDE, and I love that they have clearly identified tools, for each language they support, and doesn't offload the choices to some extension that is to be developed as another plugin or extension like other text editors.

It is simple, fast and runs on an old machine with breeze as long as it supports their gpu based rendering architecture.

The file search is fast, and project search is so fast, that it can search a distributed services projects of over 500K lines in less than 2 seconds on an i5-8250U that was a standard issue at work.

What needs improvement

limited extensions (3)tree-view (1)

The ONE thing that keeps pushing me off to my old tools is that the project wide search presents only a list and not a tree, yes i can scroll down, or start collapsing until i reach my project or directory, but that defeats the whole paradigm of folders and heirarchy or project organization.

A second nitpick, is that the breadcrumbs from file navigation, should be clickable so i can quickly go over the projects files, only from the scope of that folder, and not look at the project explorer again, to keep a mental track of indendation to see which folder i should be in.

Once I get used to project structure, and forming a mental index of folders and their probable index level, this cognitive load keeps reducing, but it takes a lot more effort to form it in zed, than in other explorers that present folders. I have to use them, get used to the codebase, and later try switching to zed.

Also, I'm particular about my themes, and I've been used to my niche themes like panda theme where i uploaded it to open-vsx registry, so having it here would be nice, but I can always port it myself over.

vs Alternatives

VS Code

JetBrains

Integrated Language Server Protocol, and tooling choices
Memory efficient design
GPU acceleration, that doesn't bloat
Efficient file searches

Ratings

Ease of use

Reliability

Value for money

Customization

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20 views2mo ago

used Zed to build Product Forums (p/)

instead of VS Code, Spacemacs

•16 reviews

What's great

lightweight (3)clean interface (5)cross-language support (2)

nice defaults with minimal customization required, at least for typescript. the taste in design is simple and functional.

doesn't feel like bloated software. reasonable git client.

What needs improvement

I stopped using it for python projects as the LSP / linters just seemed dog slow. maybe it was a skill issue, but the whole value prop for me is that it will "just work", so needing to try to troubleshoot was undesirable.

I would consider the vim bindings in zed to be decent, but not fully comprehensive. again maybe a skill issue, but i couldn't figure out how to get `K` to map to `10k` only in visual and normal mode.

vs Alternatives

VS Code

Spacemacs

I use zed for Ruby and Typescript programming in a large monorepo. Ruby has no sane LSP regardless of your editor, and Typescript works well in zed.

for personal projects (python / haskell / gleam / etc) I still use spacemacs.

Ratings

Ease of use

Reliability

Value for money

Customization

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172 views1yr ago

•5 reviews

Zed makes coding fun again! It's hard to go back to other IDEs and Electron-based editors after using Zed, because you start noticing how slow they are and how much time is spent processing your input and redrawing the UI. As a bonus, it's the only editor that I can be productive with on my 10 year old Macbook. It also has one of the best in class Github Copilot and OpenAI API integration implementations which easily competes with one of VSCode. Also having collaboration and collective development as a first class feature is nice.

What's great

fast performance (16)lightweight (3)collaboration features (4)OpenAI API integration (1)GitHub Copilot integration (1)

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123 views2yr ago

•7 reviews

Zed is a blazing-fast, minimalist editor that’s perfect for quick edits, with real-time multiplayer built in if you ever need it. It’s available on macOS and Linux (Windows “coming soon”). The trade-off is a lighter plugin ecosystem than full IDEs, so for heavier workflows I still reach for VS Code/JetBrains. Net: great speed and focus for quick changes; keep a heavier tool for deep refactors.

What's great

fast performance (16)collaboration features (4)minimal design (2)

What needs improvement

limited extensions (3)

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71 views1yr ago

used Zed to build DockFix 3.0

•9 reviews

Zed is fast, efficient, modern, and sleek. I love using Zed for developing many of my applications, regardless of the language, as it is so fast and clean, and its intelligent autocomplete feels superb. It's definitely one of the better editors out there. The only thing keeping me from using this as my only code editor is the powerful features of JetBrains editors.

What's great

fast performance (16)clean interface (5)AI autocomplete (1)cross-language support (2)

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45 views2yr ago

•1 review

I didn't realize how fast editors could be until I tried Zed. The extensions are not quite as comprehensive as the VSCode family but still covers most of my use cases. Just from those 2 things I think its worth 5 stars. The AI integration for suggested edits and "vibe coding" i think is better than Copilot, but not quite as good as Cursor/Windsurf. I also like everything they are doing with Open source

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25 views1yr ago

Ask Lorem

•1 review

I've used Zed for almost a year now. It's head and shoulders better than any other editor on the market as far as speed, responsiveness, and simplicity of UX. It's clear that the Zed team thought about the editor from first principles rather than tacking on a lot of random "features." I even write blog posts in Zed.

What's great

fast performance (16)not bloated (3)

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36 views3yr ago

used Zed to build WP Bones

•24 reviews

I stumbled upon this Editor by chance, and I must say, it's a hidden gem. Not only is it lightweight, but it excels in both PHP and JavaScript development. Despite being a relatively new product, it receives frequent updates, with new features and improvements introduced daily. The Editor's commitment to staying current and continuously enhancing the user experience sets it apart in the competitive landscape of development tools. If you're seeking a versatile and dynamic solution for your PHP and JavaScript projects, I highly recommend giving this Editor a try. You'll be pleasantly surprised by its capabilities and the seamless development experience it offers.

Alternatives Considered

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7 views2yr ago

•4 reviews

One the fastest graphical user interface based editors out there. The folks at Zed are on to something spectacular. They don't only want to create the most performant editor of all times. They also want to disrupt how developers collaborate and discuss code. I worked with the them for six months and I have to say they are really great people too.

What's great

fast performance (16)collaboration features (4)

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21 views3yr ago

•1 review

What's great

I use Zed every day for my work, and its performance is noticeably better than other code editors I've tried. Fast, lightweight and responsive.

Ratings

Ease of use

Reliability

Value for money

Customization

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10 views5mo ago

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