Zed is a high performance code editor with built in real time collaboration, built by the original Atom and Tree sitter team, and pitched as writing code at the speed of thought. It emphasizes instant startup, fluid editing, and native feeling collaboration, and unlike Electron based editors it rewrites the UI and render pipeline from the ground up in Rust with collaboration built in, so you can pair program without extra plugins. For developers who want a native class feel, it is a genuinely worth trying alternative to VS Code, especially where large repos and big files make the difference obvious.

What it does

Zed is a modern code editor centered on native class performance and multi user collaboration. Unlike Electron based editors, it rewrites the UI and render pipeline in Rust and ships real time collaboration in the core, so multiple people can open the same file, share cursors, and edit together without plugins. Collaboration is a built in capability rather than a pile of add ons, which makes pair programming and code review feel smoother, and the editing model is designed around low latency from the start rather than retrofitted later.

What problem it solves

Mainstream editors built on Electron are heavy, and startup latency plus stutter on large projects is a long standing pain. Zed uses its own Rust UI framework GPUI and GPU accelerated rendering to chase native class performance, and makes collaboration a core feature rather than a plugin assembly job, driving the overhead of team real time editing and shared context to a minimum. That advantage shows up clearly on large files, large repos, and scenarios where several people edit the same code at once, and it stays fluid even on modest hardware, which is where heavier editors tend to bog down.

Language and architecture

The main language is Rust, with the self built GPU accelerated UI framework GPUI and syntax highlighting from the same team Tree sitter. The core editor, collaboration service, and LSP integration are all Rust. It runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows, CI uses GitHub Actions, and cargo-about automates third party license compliance. Licensing is mostly GPL 3.0 or later, with some Apache 2.0 components recorded in script/licenses/zed-licenses.toml. The repo was created in February 2021 and stays active, backed by the people who built the Atom editor and Tree sitter parser, which is a meaningful signal of execution quality.

License

The project is GPL 3.0 or later with Apache 2.0 components, source open for free viewing and building, and you can compile a community build to use yourself without paying for the editor itself.

With AI coding assistants spreading in 2026, editors have become the surface agents live in, and Zed high performance and collaboration story plus AI integration expectations keep it in favor, with steady community heat. It gained about 306 stars on its launch day and sits at roughly 93.7k stars total. It is a direct competitor to What Is VS Code and How to Use It, and often compared with the lighter What Is Notepad++ and How to Use It, though the positioning is different, Zed aims to be a modern replacement for heavy editors rather than a minimal note style tool.

Where to find it

GitHub repo https://github.com/zed-industries/zed , website https://zed.dev .

Getting started

Download the build for your system from the site, open a project you know well, and feel the startup speed and search responsiveness. For team work, start a collaboration session and send the link to a colleague to see cursors move in real time. Don't expect the plugin ecosystem to match VS Code yet, but the core paths of daily editing, remote development, and AI assistance are already smooth, and the project is actively closing feature gaps.

FAQ

What is the biggest difference from VS Code? In one line, Zed uses Rust native rendering for speed and feel, while VS Code runs on Electron with a far larger ecosystem and richer extensions, so the tradeoffs differ and the right pick depends on whether you value raw responsiveness or breadth of extensions.

Is the plugin ecosystem there yet? This is Zed weaker side, VS Code extension count is still far ahead, but Zed focuses on core editing and collaboration, and common language support is already solid for daily work.

Do I need to pay for team collaboration? Collaboration is built in, you invite others to edit in real time after starting a session, with no extra plugin or third party relay required, so small teams can use it without a separate subscription.

Does it support remote development? Yes, Zed has remote and SSH style workflows that let you edit code on another machine while keeping the responsive local feel, which is a good fit for server side projects.