Today let’s talk about the comparison of Atom vs Visual Studio Code. Both of these two are text editors. A text editor is a software of a computer that can edit the plain text to create rich text. Many people use a text editor to open, view, and edit plain text files without formatting the text.
There are so many text editors available today. Atom and Visual Studio Code are two of them. I am going to discuss the differences and various aspects of the Atom and Visual Studio Code today.
Also Read: Top 5 Code Editors for Web Developers
What is Atom?
Atom is an open-source type of text editor. It is available free for macOS, Linux, and Microsoft Windows. Github developed this system and now it is under Microsoft. The size of the program varies between 87-145 MB.
It is a hackable text editor. Anyone can hack the core process of Atom and customize the software. Most of the add-on packages are available free. Freeware licenses this software.
It was marketed on 26 February 2014. Atom has a high-functioning sidebar. It helps the users to add plugins, packages, and extensions.
The package includes smarter context-aware auto-completion and an outline view. It also possesses the ability to find all references, warnings, and document formatting.
Features of Atom
Atom does not have some fixed features. A user can add the features as per their choice. We can discuss the benefits of using an atom. It supports the English language.
- It is a free text editor.
- Very much easy to use.
- One needs the least knowledge of coding to operate this system.
- Smart auto-completion is available.
- Provides a built-in package manager.
- Find and replace tools are available.
- User friendly.
- It supports Windows, Linux, and Mac.
- It supports almost all programming languages.
- Atom provides cross-platform editing features.
- One can extend the features by downloading extra files.
Also Read: How to Install Atom IDE on Windows 10
What is Visual Studio Code?
Visual Studio Code is also a renowned source code editor. And Microsoft had developed it. This text editor is also supported in Windows, Linux, and macOS. It has embedded Git. And it provides the features of debugging, syntax highlighting, snippets, and code refactoring.
It is also customizable as per the user’s choice. Visual Studio Code allows the user to change the theme and keyboard settings. Users can also change preferences and installation of extensions that add more functions. The size of the software varies between 40- 68 MB.
For widows, it is 40-68 MB, for Linux it is 46-66 MB and for macOS 67.5 MB. Visual studio code is available in many languages. For instance, English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish. It is licensed by MIT license. The release date of this text editor is 29 April 2015.
Features of Visual Studio Code
Various programming languages find implementation in Visual studio code. Some of them are Java, C++, JavaScript, Go, and Node.Js.
- It supports almost all common programming languages.
- Available in many languages.
- Available for macOS, Linux, and Windows.
- It contains many extensions of FTP.
- One can use the software as a free alternative for web development.
- Visual studio allows user to set code page where active document is saved.
- It finds use on any platform.
- One can extend the features by downloading.
- You can even exclude unwanted files and folders.
- It supports Python, web RTL languages, and custom snippets.
Also Read: How to Install Visual Studio Code (VS Code) on Windows 10
Similarity Between Atom and Visual Studio Code
There exist many differences exist between Atom and Visual Studio Code. But, they have some factors in common. Let’s have a glance at their similarities.
- Both of these editors use the Electron Software Framework System.
- Both are free text editors.
- As Microsoft brought GitHub in 2018, so now both are Microsoft products.
- Both of these are open-source text editor.
Atom vs Visual Studio Code Comparison
We have known the similarities between these two text editors. Now let us study how Atom and Visual Studio Code differ from each other. Following are given a comparison on Atom vs Visual Studio Code:
1. Performance
Visual studio code is faster than Atom-based on performance. Visual studio code has an excellent controlled core set of functions. But, Atom has a plugin-based approach that is used for everything. It makes Atom slower than VS code.
The main difference in speed issues is due to Monaco. It is a UI Editor present in the Visual code editor, which makes it faster. Atom takes a few microseconds to respond. But the VS code editor gives a prompt response.
2. Core Features
The visual studio code pack is unique to the other text editors. It builds and debugs apps. It also has Git integration.
Atom does not have all these core features like visual studio code. You have to download so many things as up-gradation to run it smoothly. Atom relies more on plugins that are easy to install from the app itself.
3. Plugins
Plugin refers to the ability to add more features. This is the area where Atom beats visual code studio. It has a built-in package manager which helps to do things better.
In visual studio code, the plugin ecosystem adds features. Users can install themes, add new languages and build tools for coding.
Atom, on the other side, gives more priority to the plugins. The right plugin can create an almost new app. These features make Atom much more prone to hack.
4. Community
Both visual studio code and Atom have a large community. Visual studio is more popular than Atom. Atom has a more open-source community than the visual studio code. This is because VS Code is attached later with Microsoft than Atom.
Both systems have dedicated communities. Atom is perfect for those users who seem interested in customization over speed. Visual studio code is for speed lovers. It responds fast, which has made it popular among the young generation.
Conclusion
Both Atom and visual studio code are very good text editors. Yet, it can be said that the visual studio editor is better than Atom. Both of them have some benefits and backlogs. Atom is a very much user-friendly, customizable software used for fewer workloads.
If the workload is high, the visual studio code is more helpful than Atom. Atom works more with extra functional files, so it takes more space to work and runs a little slow. This is a backlog for this. But, it is customizable and provides tons of features.