VS Code vs Zed vs Neovim
A side-by-side look at how actively VS Code, Zed and Neovim are developed on GitHub — popularity, contributor base, commit activity and how quickly issues and pull requests move.
What the numbers say
- VS Code is the most-starred of the 3, with 193k stars — about 2.1× Zed's 91k.
- Over the 52 weeks to the snapshot, VS Code recorded the most commits (27k), against 4.3k for Neovim.
- VS Code has closed or merged the most pull requests in its lifetime: 65k.
- Relative to its popularity, Neovim carries the lightest open-issue load: 15.9 open issues per 1,000 stars, versus 95.7 for VS Code.
Head-to-head
Snapshot taken 30 September 2026.
| Metric | VS Code Slowing | Zed Active | Neovim Active |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stars | 193k | 91k | 103k |
| Forks | 44k | 11k | 7.1k |
| Contributors | 3.3k | 2.3k | 1.6k |
| Commits, last 52 weeks | 27k | 8.7k | 4.3k |
| Open issues | 19k | 2.4k | 1.6k |
| Open pull requests | 2.8k | 787 | 302 |
| Closed / merged PRs | 65k | 32k | 26k |
| Watchers | 3.5k | 320 | 1.0k |
| Last push | 30 Sep 2026 | 30 Sep 2026 | 30 Sep 2026 |
| Latest release | 1.139.1 (Sep 2026) | v1.21.0 (Sep 2026) | v0.12.5 (Aug 2026) |
| Main language | TypeScript | Rust | Vim Script |
| Licence | MIT | Not detected by GitHub | Not detected by GitHub |
| Created | Sep 2015 | Feb 2021 | Jan 2014 |
Bold marks the highest value in a row. “Active / Slowing / Dormant” is a simple heuristic from how recently code was pushed and open issues per star — a starting point, not a verdict. Stars measure popularity, not quality.
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