Code editors

# Free vs paid

Some popular editors are free to download. Some offer paid tiers that unlock higher AI usage limits or advanced features. Commercial IDEs usually come with a subscription fee and offer a higher level of language-specific tooling — refactoring, static analysis, integrated database clients, test runners — that free editors typically approximate through plugins.

# Lightweight vs heavy

Some editors are built on Electron — they embed a full browser engine and a Node.js runtime. This makes them flexible and easy to extend, but also memory-hungry and slower to start than native applications. On older or memory-constrained machines the difference is noticeable.

Other editors are native applications or JVM-based. Native editors tend to start instantly and use significantly less memory. JVM-based IDEs have their own startup overhead, but are typically fast and responsive once a project is indexed.

# AI integration

Most modern editors have some form of AI assistance — autocomplete, inline edits, a chat panel, or all three. The key differences are how deeply AI is integrated, which model providers are supported, and whether you can run a local model to keep code off external servers.

# Privacy

Editors vary in how much data they collect. Most gather anonymous usage statistics, usually opt-in or easy to disable. AI-assisted editors are a different matter: they send code context to external model providers by design.

# Integration with fortrabbit

You can use fortrabbit with any code editor of course. There is no integration required.

# Code editors covered here

• VS Code — free, MicroSoft, widely used
• PhpStorm — commercial JetBrains IDE with deep PHP tooling
• Cursor — AI-assisted editor built on VS Code
• Zed — fast native editor, built-in SSH support

# Others

Sublime Text — fast, lightweight, and native. One of the first editors to popularize the command palette and multi-cursor editing. Not free, but a one-time purchase rather than a subscription. AI features are available via plugins. Still actively developed and has a loyal following.

TextMate — a macOS-only editor that was highly influential in the mid-2000s. Development slowed for years but has picked up again. Lightweight and native, with a distinctive bundle system for language support. No built-in AI features.

Vim — a terminal-based editor available on virtually every Unix system, including on each fortrabbit environment over SSH. Has a steep learning curve but is extremely efficient once internalized.