The G2 on Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code Pros and Cons: Top 5 Advantages and Disadvantages

Quick AI Summary Based on G2 Reviews

Generated from real user reviews

Users love the ease of use in Visual Studio Code, making it beginner-friendly while managing complex applications effortlessly. (76 mentions)

Users value the multiplicity of extensions in Visual Studio Code for enhancing coding efficiency and experience. (60 mentions)

Users appreciate the extensive language support in Visual Studio Code, enhancing productivity and versatility for all coding needs. (47 mentions)

Users praise the seamless Git integration in VS Code, enhancing productivity across various programming languages. (33 mentions)

Users love the rich set of extensions in Visual Studio Code, enhancing functionality and user experience. (32 mentions)

Users report that Visual Studio Code has high resource usage, particularly impacting performance on low-powered devices and larger projects. (20 mentions)

Users express frustration with extension issues, including the need to restart VS Code and the complex selection process. (19 mentions)

Users find that Visual Studio Code's slow performance can hinder productivity, especially with larger projects and during startup. (18 mentions)

Users face plugin issues, including lost configurations and excessive identical extension options, complicating their experience. (15 mentions)

Users report a steep learning curve for beginners and challenges with resource usage in larger projects on Visual Studio Code. (11 mentions)

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Antoine S.

Senior Software Engineer

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

6/26/2025

"Visual Studio Code wow is all this free?"

5/5

What do you like best about Visual Studio Code?

Visual Studio Code has become my go-to editor not just because it’s powerful, but because it genuinely feels tailored to how I work. One of the standout features for me is IntelliSense—the smart code completion is so intuitive that it often feels like it’s reading my mind. It speeds up my workflow and helps me write cleaner, more reliable code without constantly flipping through documentation.

The built-in Git integration is another massive plus. I can stage, commit, and manage branches right from the editor—no need to switch to a terminal or external Git client. It keeps everything in one place and saves me a lot of context switching.

When it comes to squashing bugs, the debugging tools in VS Code are rock solid. I can set breakpoints, inspect variables, and step through my code with ease, which is a huge time-saver during development.

I also love how flexible the extensions marketplace is. Whether I need support for a new language, a formatter, or a snippet pack, I can always find what I need—and usually discover something new that makes my workflow even better.

Personalization is big for me, so I really appreciate how easy it is to customize themes and settings. From color schemes to keybindings, I’ve been able to make VS Code feel like my editor.

Despite all these powerful features, it still manages to stay lightweight and fast. It opens in seconds and runs smoothly even with multiple extensions installed, which makes a real difference during long coding sessions.

All in all, Visual Studio Code strikes the perfect balance between power, speed, and flexibility. It’s more than just a code editor—it’s a central hub for everything I do as a developer. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Visual Studio Code?

As much as I rely on and enjoy using Visual Studio Code, it’s not without its flaws. For starters, while IntelliSense is usually spot-on, it can occasionally lag or give irrelevant suggestions—especially in large projects or with certain language servers. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it does interrupt the flow sometimes.

The Git integration, though convenient, lacks the depth of more advanced Git clients. Tasks like resolving complex merge conflicts or managing large rebases still push me back to the terminal or an external tool.

While the debugger works great for many languages, it can be hit or miss depending on the language or framework. Setting up debugging for some environments takes more configuration than it should, and there’s a bit of trial and error involved.

The extensions marketplace is both a blessing and a curse. There’s a ton of great stuff, but quality control varies wildly. Some extensions slow down the editor or conflict with others, and figuring out which ones are truly worth installing can be a bit overwhelming.

I love being able to customize themes and settings, but the sheer number of configuration options can be daunting. It’s easy to go down a rabbit hole of tweaks and overrides trying to get everything just right.

Despite being marketed as lightweight, VS Code can get resource-hungry, especially when running multiple extensions or handling large projects. On lower-end machines, that “lightweight” feel can fade fast.

Remote development is a powerful feature, but it doesn’t always feel seamless. Connection hiccups, extension compatibility issues, and occasional sync delays can disrupt momentum—particularly in cloud-based or containerized environments.

Lastly, Live Share, while incredibly useful, isn’t always reliable. It sometimes struggles with syncing edits in real time or supporting more complex project setups, and occasional connectivity issues can make real-time collaboration frustrating. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Visual Studio Code solving and how is that benefiting you?

Visual Studio Code solves one of the biggest problems in modern development: needing a single, flexible environment where I can write, debug, test, collaborate, and deploy code without jumping between five different tools. It brings everything together in a way that saves time and lets me stay focused.

For starters, context switching used to be a major pain. I'd have one tool for editing code, another for Git, a separate terminal, a debugger, and yet another for remote access. With VS Code, all of that is integrated—Git tools, terminal, debugging, extensions, and even remote development—right in the editor. That means less overhead, fewer distractions, and a smoother workflow.

It also solves the problem of setting up a dev environment across different machines. With the right extensions and settings synced, I can get up and running quickly on any system. Add remote development into the mix, and I can work directly in containers, WSL, or on remote servers without replicating the full stack locally.

Then there's collaboration—Live Share makes it easy to pair program or troubleshoot with teammates without needing to set up screen sharing or fiddle with local environment compatibility. That’s huge when working on distributed teams or mentoring someone in real-time.

VS Code also helps tackle code quality and productivity issues. Features like IntelliSense, inline linting, and auto-formatting reduce silly mistakes and make me more efficient. I'm catching bugs earlier, writing cleaner code, and spending less time manually formatting or hunting down syntax errors.

And finally, by being modular and customizable, VS Code helps me avoid bloat. I only install what I need, so it stays relatively lightweight and responsive, especially compared to full-blown IDEs.

In short, Visual Studio Code is solving the practical problems of fragmentation, inefficiency, and inconsistent tooling—giving me a fast, unified, and customizable space to build software. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Thimo B.

CEO

Computer Software

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

6/20/2025

"The Ultimate Developer Companion – Fast, Extensible, and Intuitive"

5/5

What do you like best about Visual Studio Code?

Visual Studio Code combines speed, flexibility, and modern development features in one lightweight package. The extension marketplace is outstanding—allowing for deep customization across languages and frameworks. IntelliSense and in-editor debugging tools are incredibly helpful for speeding up development and reducing bugs. I particularly love the built-in Git integration and the Live Share collaboration feature, which makes remote pair programming a breeze. It's also cross-platform, which is a major plus. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Visual Studio Code?

There's very little to criticize. Occasionally, extensions can conflict or cause performance lags, especially when too many are installed. Some settings and configurations (e.g., workspace setup, launch.json) have a learning curve for beginners. However, this is more than offset by the vast documentation and community support. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Visual Studio Code solving and how is that benefiting you?

VS Code helps unify our entire development process into a single, consistent environment. From editing, linting, and version control to testing and deployment—everything is streamlined. It has greatly reduced our need for multiple tools, increased team productivity, and made onboarding of new developers significantly faster thanks to easy configuration sharing and cloud-based environments like GitHub Codespaces. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Kushagra A.

Student

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

6/10/2025

"The Most Versatile and Lightweight Code Editor for Developers"

5/5

What do you like best about Visual Studio Code?

VS Code is incredibly easy to use, even for beginners, yet powerful enough for advanced developers. Its lightweight nature doesn’t compromise performance, and the huge library of extensions makes it highly customizable for any tech stack. Features like IntelliSense, Git integration, debugging tools, and live share make daily development smoother and faster. It’s free, open-source, and integrates effortlessly with tools like GitHub, Docker, and various languages and frameworks. We use it daily, and it fits almost every use case—from front-end to back-end development. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Visual Studio Code?

While it performs well in most cases, VS Code can get sluggish with too many extensions or large projects. Occasionally, extensions conflict or cause crashes, and debugging those issues can be time-consuming. Customer support is community-driven, which is helpful but lacks the responsiveness of a dedicated team. Also, while setup is generally simple, initial configuration for certain languages or tools might require manual tweaks. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Visual Studio Code solving and how is that benefiting you?

Visual Studio Code solves the problem of needing a lightweight yet powerful development environment. It eliminates the hassle of switching tools by combining code editing, version control, debugging, and extension support all in one place. This boosts productivity, especially in multi-language projects, and makes collaboration and code management much more efficient.

It saves time by streamlining my workflow—I can code, debug, and manage Git all in one place without switching tools. With extensions tailored to my stack, I can customize the environment to fit my needs, which makes me more efficient. Features like IntelliSense and auto-complete reduce errors and speed up development, while built-in integration with GitHub and terminals makes project management seamless. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Luca P.

✅ CTO - Growth Marketer full stack #MarTech | ⚡️ SaaS Advisor

Marketing and Advertising

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

6/5/2025

"A Highly Extensible and Performant Editor for Modern Development"

5/5

What do you like best about Visual Studio Code?

I find Visual Studio Code to be an exceptionally versatile and robust source code editor that caters to a wide array of development needs. Its strengths are numerous, but I particularly appreciate the following aspects:

- Its extensive marketplace for extensions is a standout feature. The sheer volume and quality of available extensions allow me to tailor the environment precisely to my project requirements, whether I'm working with JavaScript, Python, Java, Go, or even more niche languages. This level of customization significantly enhances productivity.

- The IntelliSense (code completion, parameter info, quick info, and member lists) is top-tier. For the languages it supports (either natively or through extensions), the autocompletion is highly accurate and context-aware

- The built-in Git integration is incredibly well-implemented.

- Despite its rich feature set, VS Code maintains good performance and a relatively lightweight footprint compared to traditional IDEs. It launches quickly and remains responsive, even when handling large projects or multiple workspaces. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Visual Studio Code?

While VS Code is an outstanding tool, it's not without areas for potential improvement. The sheer number of extensions, while a core strength, can sometimes lead to a bit of "extension fatigue. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Visual Studio Code solving and how is that benefiting you?

Having been an active user of Visual Studio Code for what is now over a decade, since its early releases, I've witnessed its evolution and can definitively state that it has fundamentally streamlined my development process and solved several key problems. Throughout these years, it has consistently provided a unified and highly efficient coding environment, which is particularly crucial for the polyglot nature of my projects. Before fully standardizing on VS Code, and certainly in the years prior to its maturity, I often found myself juggling multiple specialized editors or heavier IDEs for different languages or tasks. For many years now, however, I've been able to seamlessly transition between writing Python for backend services, TypeScript for frontend React applications, and PowerShell scripts for automation, all within its single, consistent interface. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Emmanuel A.

Software Developer

Information Technology and Services

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

5/14/2025

"Best coding editor i have used in recent years."

5/5

What do you like best about Visual Studio Code?

Vscode provides one of the best interfaces to use for writing code , from the different themes, to the marketplace where I can get more tools to help me become more productive in my work. Another perk is that it supports multiple programming languages and with the use of tools in the marketplace makes the experience 10x better. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Visual Studio Code?

One thing that makes me dislike VS Code is that it does not work as an IDE, so you need a custom setup for each programming language you use. If it came by default with a setup for the most popular languages, python, C, C++, Rust, Javasript, etc it would really be hands-down the best. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Visual Studio Code solving and how is that benefiting you?

The problem its currently solving is productivity when building software. Its simplicity as a coding editor makes faster building of software because it loads first and you only use what you need as opposed to ide's that need alot of processing and ram to load and take alot of space. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

SHIHORA H.

Software Engineering Intern

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

4/19/2025

"its AI Copilot, powerful extensions, and customization make coding super easy and enjoyable."

5/5

What do you like best about Visual Studio Code?

I love how I can customize the look of VS Code to match my mood, tweak the keyboard shortcuts to speed things up, and explore tons of extensions that add real value.

I use GitHub Copilot very much that suggests code as I type, making both learning and writing code much faster. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Visual Studio Code?

Navigating Large Codebases Can Be Challenging

When I work on big projects in VS Code, it can be a bit tricky to find where a variable or method is used. The "Go to Definition" feature doesn’t always work perfectly, so I can’t always jump straight to the code I need. It slows things down, especially when I'm trying to understand or fix something quickly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Visual Studio Code solving and how is that benefiting you?

Visual Studio Code makes coding easier and more organized. It helps me write, edit, and debug code all in one place. With features like extensions, Git integration, and AI suggestions from Copilot, it saves me time and makes my workflow smoother. Everything I need is right there, so I don’t have to keep switching tools. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Alok K.

student

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

2/26/2025

"Visual Studio Code: The first love of coders"

5/5

What do you like best about Visual Studio Code?

The best thing I like about visual studio code is that it is one of the best code editors available in the market and have almost every feature that a programmer need and have a variety of themes available and font can also be changed. It has a lot of features, has variety of available extensions which are available for every programming language and it is not limited to that even it has code runner extension too which help you run your code in the software itself, even there is terminal provided where you can see the result of your code.

The software is a type of package in itself to write ,edit, format ,design code and do programming ,even it is very easy to use as a beginner.

Even the software option to connect it with github .

the software even is providing ai to help and assist you while writing the code.

it is very useful to daily programming and its user interface is so good that no one can be bored.

I am using it from more than 2 years .

it is very easy to install also and it is a free software you do not have to pay for it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Visual Studio Code?

I donot have dislikes about the visual studio code maybe sometimes it have minor issue using it for more than 2 years didn't find any major issue. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Visual Studio Code solving and how is that benefiting you?

I am a computer science and engineering student and I needed a code editor for my daily day to tasks and learnings and I found this code editor I can surely say this is currently the best text editor in the market , as a beginner I was afraid how to use any code editor but when I used it never struggled to use it because its user interface and features are so good and easy to use that even a beginner could easily use it. I am almost using it more than 2 years and I saw that it has a lot of features like extensions ,terminal ,code runner, themes. even it has a feature that while writing code it will tell you where are you writing wrong by highlighting the wrong line, even it helped me a lot to write code correctly when I was a beginner, I have also used it for web development and it also support it to run and code the webpage you designed .

It is helpful for practicing coding also.

i also use it for practise dsa question that my professor give for assignment.

It also support connecting with Github that also helped me a lot.

It is not limited to that it also have feature that two or more people can work together from different locations or systems on the same code Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Amitab M.

Information Technology and Services

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

6/17/2025

"A Reliable and Versatile Development Tool"

5/5

What do you like best about Visual Studio Code?

Integrated Git Support: Streamlines version control and collaboration.

Extensions Marketplace: A rich ecosystem of tools for almost every programming language or framework I use.

Debugger: The built-in debugger simplifies the debugging process for my code.

Performance: It runs smoothly even on mid-range systems, without lag, ensuring a seamless experience.

VS Code also has excellent support for various programming languages and frameworks, making it versatile for projects ranging from web development to backend APIs. With regular updates and a strong community, it continues to evolve and improve.

For anyone looking for a reliable and customizable development tool, I highly recommend giving VS Code a try! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Visual Studio Code?

The built-in Git integration is robust, but its interface can be overwhelming for beginners who might prefer simpler version control tools. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Iván R.

Web Developer

Retail

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

5/29/2025

"More than a code editor"

5/5

What do you like best about Visual Studio Code?

I love the large community and the number of plugins to enhance the editor, which also makes it very customizable. Additionally, it is super easy to use. Thanks to Github Copilot, an interesting extra is added that makes it, with its fluidity and AI, even better than some IDEs. Its integration with Github is complete, which makes version control easier. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Visual Studio Code?

Honestly, there is nothing I don't like about Visual Studio Code. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Srivishnu S.

Admin + Developer

Computer Software

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

2/4/2025

"Most versatile IDE for multiple coding language"

5/5

What do you like best about Visual Studio Code?

This is like the best IDE out there that supports multiple coding languages. It's so easy to integrate different coding languages using their extensions. This is the only Code Editor I use on a daily basis for all my coding needs. What's even better is that I can use Github Co Pilot which is an AI Powered assistant that helps me code! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Visual Studio Code?

It can get laggy at times, especially when working with large blocks of code. It's not that major but it is surely noticeable! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Visual Studio Code solving and how is that benefiting you?

- Since we develop various software stacks which use different coding languages, we use Visual Studio as it supports multiple languages.

- It speeds up our development process solely thanks to the intellisense feature (basically, auto-fill and auto-recommend) and Co-Pilot integration.

- It can be easily be linked with our Github accounts which helps us with Version Control.

- It offers multiple extensions in its extension stores which serve various purposes from code templates to AI-Powered coding, which actually accelerates the overall development progress.

- It allows us to modify the theme of the IDE which permits each of my co-worker to personalize it to their needs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.