— Coding Tool Tool

Visual Studio Code

Last updated July 10, 2026 ·Reviewed by ToolForge Editorial

The editor 70% of developers live in. Now with first-class GitHub Copilot AI completions built in.

★ 4.9/5·14M+ devs ·Since 2015·Free, open-source

Free Coding Tool plan

Try Visual Studio Code → Read full review

What Visual Studio Code does best

The editor 70% of developers live in. Now with first-class GitHub Copilot AI completions built in. We tested it across real workflows to find where it shines and where it stumbles.

Who it's for: Coding Tool users who want a faster, AI-assisted workflow without a steep learning curve.

Key features

Copilot integrationInline AI

Ghost-text completions and chat directly in the editor via GitHub Copilot.

Extensions galoreMarketplace

40,000+ extensions; anything from themes to language servers.

Integrated terminal & debuggerZero context-switch

Run, debug, and git without leaving the editor.

Remote devContainers & SSH

Code against a remote machine or container as if local.

The honest take

✓ What works

Free and cross-platform
Massive extension ecosystem
Copilot + Chat make it AI-native
Industry standard, easy to hire for

✗ What doesn't

Can feel heavy with many extensions
Copilot is a paid add-on ($10/mo)
Settings JSON is intimidating at first

Verdict

Visual Studio Code earns a spot in a modern AI stack if you value coding tool speed and quality. Free is reasonable for what it delivers — and the free tier is enough to decide if it fits.

💡 Transparency: This review contains affiliate links. If you sign up through our link, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. We only recommend tools we use ourselves. Full disclosure.

Visual Studio Code

What Visual Studio Code does best

Key features

The honest take

✓ What works

✗ What doesn't

Verdict

Related Tools

Cursor

Github Copilot

Windsurf

Jetbrains Ai

Try Visual Studio Code today