Monaco Editor vs Visual Studio Code

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Monaco Editor

56
171
+ 1
17
Visual Studio Code

178.1K
162.3K
+ 1
2.3K
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Monaco Editor vs Visual Studio Code: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Monaco Editor and Visual Studio Code are both popular code editors widely used by developers. While both of them have similar features and functionalities, there are some key differences between the two.

1. Syntax Highlighting and IntelliSense:

Monaco Editor provides excellent syntax highlighting and IntelliSense capabilities. It offers a wide range of language support out of the box and provides suggestions, auto-completion, and context-aware code snippets, making it easier for developers to write code efficiently.

Visual Studio Code also provides robust syntax highlighting and IntelliSense features. However, one key difference is that Visual Studio Code supports a larger number of programming languages and offers more advanced IntelliSense options. It also has better support for debugging and code navigation compared to Monaco Editor.

2. Extensibility and Customization:

Visual Studio Code has a strong emphasis on extensibility and customization. It provides a marketplace with a wide variety of extensions that developers can use to enhance their code editing experience. These extensions can add additional features, support for different programming languages, and integration with external tools and services.

Monaco Editor, on the other hand, is designed to be lightweight and embeddable. It lacks the extensive extension ecosystem of Visual Studio Code and does not have the same level of customization options. While it can be customized to some extent, it does not offer the same level of flexibility as Visual Studio Code.

3. Integrated Terminal:

Visual Studio Code comes with an integrated terminal, allowing developers to run commands and scripts directly from the editor. This can be handy for tasks like building, testing, and debugging code without having to switch between different applications.

Monaco Editor, on the other hand, does not have an integrated terminal feature. Developers using Monaco Editor would need to rely on external terminals or command-line interfaces to run commands and scripts.

4. Collaboration and Live Editing:

Monaco Editor has built-in support for collaboration and live editing. It allows multiple users to work on the same file simultaneously, with real-time synchronization of changes. This can be useful for pair programming or remote team collaboration, as it provides a seamless experience for developers to work together on code.

Visual Studio Code, on the other hand, does not have native support for real-time collaboration. While there are extensions available that enable collaboration features, it is not as seamlessly integrated as Monaco Editor's built-in collaboration capabilities.

5. Cloud-based Editing:

Monaco Editor can be used as part of the web-based code editors like Visual Studio Codespaces or GitHub Codespaces. This allows developers to edit code in the cloud without the need for installing any local development environment. It provides a lightweight and accessible way to work on code from anywhere, using just a web browser.

Visual Studio Code, while having some remote development capabilities, primarily relies on being installed locally on a developer's machine. It provides a more comprehensive set of features and integrations for local development scenarios, but does not have the same level of cloud-based editing capabilities as Monaco Editor.

6. Performance and Resource Usage:

Monaco Editor is known for its lightweight and fast performance. It is optimized to handle large codebases and provides a smooth editing experience, even with complex projects. It has a smaller memory footprint compared to Visual Studio Code, making it suitable for scenarios where resource usage needs to be minimized.

Visual Studio Code, on the other hand, is a more feature-rich editor that can consume more system resources, especially when working with large projects. While it provides powerful tools and functionalities, it may require a more powerful machine to ensure smooth performance.

Summary:

In summary, Monaco Editor is a lightweight and embeddable code editor that provides excellent syntax highlighting and IntelliSense capabilities, with built-in support for collaboration and cloud-based editing. Visual Studio Code, on the other hand, offers more extensive customization options, a larger extension ecosystem, integrated terminals, and stronger support for advanced features like debugging and code navigation. Choose Monaco Editor for a lightweight and efficient development experience, or Visual Studio Code for a more customizable and feature-rich editing environment.

Decisions about Monaco Editor and Visual Studio Code
Samriddhi Sinha
Machine Learning Engineer at Chefling · | 6 upvotes · 1000K views

Lightweight and versatile. Huge library of extensions that enable you to integrate a host of services to your development environment. VS Code's biggest strength is its library of extensions which enables it to directly compete with every single major IDE for almost all major programming languages.

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Kamaleshwar BN
Senior Software Engineer at Pulley · | 12 upvotes · 1.3M views

Visual Studio Code became famous over the past 3+ years I believe. The clean UI, easy to use UX and the plethora of integrations made it a very easy decision for us. Our gripe with Sublime was probably only the UX side. VSCode has not failed us till now, and still is able to support our development env without any significant effort.

Goland being paid, as well as built only for Go seemed like a significant limitation to not consider it.

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Simon Ibssa
Student at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo · | 2 upvotes · 1.2M views

I decided to choose VSCode over Sublime text for my Systems Programming class in C. What I love about VSCode is its awesome ability to add extensions. Intellisense is a beautiful debugger, and Remote SSH allows me to login and make real-time changes in VSCode to files on my university server. This is an awesome alternative to going back and forth on pushing/pulling code and logging into servers in the terminal. Great choice for anyone interested in C programming!

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Pros of Monaco Editor
Pros of Visual Studio Code
  • 6
    Out of the Box Intellisense
  • 4
    More features than Ace
  • 3
    Power vscode, with all it's features
  • 2
    Microsoft Product
  • 1
    Accessibility
  • 1
    Good support for none-monospace fonts
  • 340
    Powerful multilanguage IDE
  • 308
    Fast
  • 193
    Front-end develop out of the box
  • 158
    Support TypeScript IntelliSense
  • 142
    Very basic but free
  • 126
    Git integration
  • 106
    Intellisense
  • 78
    Faster than Atom
  • 53
    Better ui, easy plugins, and nice git integration
  • 45
    Great Refactoring Tools
  • 44
    Good Plugins
  • 42
    Terminal
  • 38
    Superb markdown support
  • 36
    Open Source
  • 35
    Extensions
  • 26
    Awesome UI
  • 26
    Large & up-to-date extension community
  • 24
    Powerful and fast
  • 22
    Portable
  • 18
    Best code editor
  • 18
    Best editor
  • 17
    Easy to get started with
  • 15
    Lots of extensions
  • 15
    Good for begginers
  • 15
    Crossplatform
  • 15
    Built on Electron
  • 14
    Extensions for everything
  • 14
    Open, cross-platform, fast, monthly updates
  • 14
    All Languages Support
  • 13
    Easy to use and learn
  • 12
    "fast, stable & easy to use"
  • 12
    Extensible
  • 11
    Ui design is great
  • 11
    Totally customizable
  • 11
    Git out of the box
  • 11
    Useful for begginer
  • 11
    Faster edit for slow computer
  • 10
    SSH support
  • 10
    Great community
  • 10
    Fast Startup
  • 9
    Works With Almost EveryThing You Need
  • 9
    Great language support
  • 9
    Powerful Debugger
  • 9
    It has terminal and there are lots of shortcuts in it
  • 8
    Can compile and run .py files
  • 8
    Python extension is fast
  • 7
    Features rich
  • 7
    Great document formater
  • 6
    He is not Michael
  • 6
    Extension Echosystem
  • 6
    She is not Rachel
  • 6
    Awesome multi cursor support
  • 5
    VSCode.pro Course makes it easy to learn
  • 5
    Language server client
  • 5
    SFTP Workspace
  • 5
    Very proffesional
  • 5
    Easy azure
  • 4
    Has better support and more extentions for debugging
  • 4
    Supports lots of operating systems
  • 4
    Excellent as git difftool and mergetool
  • 4
    Virtualenv integration
  • 3
    Better autocompletes than Atom
  • 3
    Has more than enough languages for any developer
  • 3
    'batteries included'
  • 3
    More tools to integrate with vs
  • 3
    Emmet preinstalled
  • 2
    VS Code Server: Browser version of VS Code
  • 2
    CMake support with autocomplete
  • 2
    Microsoft
  • 2
    Customizable
  • 2
    Light
  • 2
    Big extension marketplace
  • 2
    Fast and ruby is built right in
  • 1
    File:///C:/Users/ydemi/Downloads/yuksel_demirkaya_webpa

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Cons of Monaco Editor
Cons of Visual Studio Code
  • 7
    Microsoft
  • 46
    Slow startup
  • 29
    Resource hog at times
  • 20
    Poor refactoring
  • 13
    Poor UI Designer
  • 11
    Weak Ui design tools
  • 10
    Poor autocomplete
  • 8
    Super Slow
  • 8
    Huge cpu usage with few installed extension
  • 8
    Microsoft sends telemetry data
  • 7
    Poor in PHP
  • 6
    It's MicroSoft
  • 3
    Poor in Python
  • 3
    No Built in Browser Preview
  • 3
    No color Intergrator
  • 3
    Very basic for java development and buggy at times
  • 3
    No built in live Preview
  • 3
    Electron
  • 2
    Bad Plugin Architecture
  • 2
    Powered by Electron
  • 1
    Terminal does not identify path vars sometimes
  • 1
    Slow C++ Language Server

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What is Monaco Editor?

The Monaco Editor is the code editor that powers VS Code. It is licensed under the MIT License and supports IE 9/10/11, Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera.

What is Visual Studio Code?

Build and debug modern web and cloud applications. Code is free and available on your favorite platform - Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows.

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What companies use Monaco Editor?
What companies use Visual Studio Code?
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What tools integrate with Monaco Editor?
What tools integrate with Visual Studio Code?

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What are some alternatives to Monaco Editor and Visual Studio Code?
CodeMirror
CodeMirror is a JavaScript component that provides a code editor in the browser. When a mode is available for the language you are coding in, it will color your code, and optionally help with indentation.
JavaScript
JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.
Git
Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.
GitHub
GitHub is the best place to share code with friends, co-workers, classmates, and complete strangers. Over three million people use GitHub to build amazing things together.
Python
Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.
See all alternatives