Zed - After One Month

Around a month or so, I wrote a post about how I started using Zed as my new code editor, and why I like it so much. And now, after using it for a month, I've decided to write a follow-up post about it, and how I feel about it now.

First, I have to say for what (languages) I've been using Zed for the past month. I've been using it for:

1. Vue.js
2. SCSS/CSS
3. JavaScript/TypeScript
4. Markdown (like this post)

I will rate the editor based on these languages, and how well it works with them. I will rate it from 1 to 5 in terms of:

• Performance
• Features
• Ease of Use
• Experience for the language
• Overall

Performance ​

Do I even have to say it? Their tagline is literally "code at the speed of thought", so zed is fast. Like, really fast. It opens in less than a second, and it's ready to use. It doesn't lag, it doesn't freeze, it doesn't crash. It's just fast. And I love it. For example, when I was using Visual Studio Code, it took a few seconds to open fully (all the extensions to get loaded, the syntax highlighting to get loaded, etc.). Zed doesn't have that problem. It's just extremely fast.

Here, the rating is 5/5.

Features ​

I honestly did find it to be a bit lacking much in terms of features. It has some great features I loved from VSCode, like tasks, and being able to run task trough keyboard shortcuts. But it's missing some features, such as:

1. Full Git integration: Zed has blame, but it doesn't have a Git manager like VSCode has, where you can write commits, see the history, etc.

2. Frontmatter support: Zed doesn't have frontmatter support for Markdown files, which is a bit annoying, but I can live without it.

And well, that's about it. I would like to see more features in Zed, but I can live without them.

Here, the rating is 4/5, because it's missing some features I would like to see, but it's not a dealbreaker.

Ease of Use ​

Zed is easy to use, since it's really minimalistic, which I love. It doesn't have a lot of buttons, a lot of menus, a lot of options. It's just simple. And I love it. It's easy to use, and it's easy to get used to. I didn't have any problems with it, and I don't think you will have any problems with it either.

Here, the rating is 5/5.

Experience for the language ​

Zed is great for Vue.js, SCSS/CSS, JavaScript/TypeScript, and Markdown. It has great syntax highlighting, and it's easy to read the code. I didn't have any problems with it, and I don't think you will have any problems with it either.

It provides extensions for Vue.js and SCSS, which is great. Tailwind CSS auto-completion is available, and works better than in VSCode.

Here, the rating is 5/5.

Overall ​

Overall, I love Zed. It's fast, it's easy to use, and it's great for the languages I use. I would like to see more features in it, but I can live without them. I would recommend Zed to anyone who wants a fast, minimalistic code editor.

If I would compare Zed to VSCode, I would say that Zed is overall better, but it's missing some features.

The total rating is 4.75/5, which is great.

Some more thoughts ​

So there is still one big feature in Zed that I don't use, but I would if I would've worked on really large projects - "Channels".

Channels ​

Channels is a feature in Zed that provides you a way to streamline collaborating with others. You can create channels, invite people to them, and then you can talk with them, message them if you don't want to talk, and even code with them. You can see what they are typing, and you can see what they are doing. It's a great feature, but I don't use it, since I don't work on large projects with other people. But if you do, I would recommend you to use it.

That's it for this post. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading! Bye! 👋