Visual Studio Code

A free and open source code editor that supports multiple languages, debugging, extensions, and more.

Visual Studio Code is the editor that became the default: a fast, free, open-core code editor from Microsoft with an extension ecosystem covering every language, an integrated terminal, debugger and git, remote development over SSH and containers, and settings that sync across machines.

Why founders use it: the odds are your stack, whatever it is, is supported well on the first install, debugger, linting, language server, formatting, and the odds are your teammates already use it, which makes pairing and config sharing frictionless. The Remote extensions turn a laptop into a front-end for any server or container, and the extension API has absorbed entire tool categories, databases, testing, AI assistants, into the same window.

A realistic setup: language extensions for the stack, a pinned set of workspace settings in the repository, tasks and launch configs shared through code, and the terminal multiplexed inside. Extensions are curated rather than accumulated, startup time is the budget.

Trade-offs: Electron underneath means memory appetite with heavy workspaces, some advanced IDE features trail JetBrains, and extension quality varies. Compare with the JetBrains family for language-depth tooling, Zed for raw speed, and Cursor for the AI-first fork of the same interface.