Zed

Overview

Zed was built starting in 2021 by Zed Industries, a team that includes several of the original creators of Atom and the Tree-sitter parsing library. It was designed from scratch in Rust specifically to address performance complaints leveled at Electron-based editors like Atom and VS Code, using GPU-accelerated rendering to keep the interface responsive even with large files or many open panes.

The editor’s source code is published under a mix of GPL-3.0 (for the main application) and Apache-2.0 (for several underlying libraries), and it ships with real-time collaborative editing built directly into the core product rather than as an add-on extension. Zed currently supports Linux and macOS, with Windows support in active development.

Key Features

• GPU-accelerated rendering — A custom rendering engine designed for low-latency scrolling and typing, even in large files
• Built-in real-time collaboration — Shared editing sessions and voice chat without a separate extension
• Native LSP and Tree-sitter integration — Language server support and accurate syntax highlighting out of the box
• AI-assisted editing — Built-in support for AI code completion and chat, configurable with different model providers
• Extension system — A growing plugin API for language support and editor customization

Use Cases

• Performance-sensitive editing — Working with large codebases or files where editor responsiveness matters
• Real-time pair programming — Built-in collaborative editing without setting up a separate screen-share or Live Share session
• Rust and systems programming — Strong out-of-the-box support given the editor’s own Rust codebase and contributor base

Who It’s For

Zed suits developers who want a fast, modern editor built around real-time collaboration and are comfortable with a newer, smaller extension ecosystem than VS Code’s. It’s a strong fit for macOS and Linux users specifically, since Windows support isn’t yet available.