VS Code

Visual Studio Code was released by Microsoft in 2015 and has since become the dominant editor across most programming communities. It is free to download and use. The source code is open source; a build without Microsoft telemetry is available as VSCodium.

# Ecosystem

VS Code's extension marketplace is enormous. There are extensions for PHP linting, debugging (Xdebug), database GUIs, Git tooling, Docker, SFTP, SSH, code formatting, and more. Most are free. The breadth of available extensions is one of the main reasons for VS Code's popularity.

# Performance

VS Code is an Electron application. It embeds a Chromium browser engine and a Node.js runtime, which makes it flexible but also heavier than native editors. Startup is slower and memory use is higher than a native equivalent. On modern hardware this is rarely noticeable; on older machines it can be.

# AI integration

GitHub Copilot is the most tightly integrated AI option — it is developed by Microsoft/GitHub and built into VS Code's extension API. It requires a paid GitHub subscription. There is also a plugin for Claude Code.

# Privacy

VS Code collects telemetry by default — usage statistics and crash reports sent to Microsoft. This can be disabled under File → Preferences → Settings → Telemetry. VSCodium ships with telemetry removed entirely. GitHub Copilot sends code context to GitHub's servers when active; review its settings if you work with sensitive codebases.