Zed is a high-performance, multiplayer code editor built from scratch in Rust by the creators of Atom and Tree-sitter. It's available for macOS, Linux, and Windows, and is fully open source.
Purpose
The core purpose of Zed is to deliver a fast, responsive, and joyful coding experience that stays out of your way, while enabling seamless collaboration with both humans and AI. It aims to be the world's best text/code editor by focusing on extreme performance (leveraging multi-core CPUs and GPU acceleration), built-in real-time multiplayer features, and deep AI integration.
Key benefits include:
- Blazing speed and low latency — Typing, scrolling, and editing feel instantaneous, often described as noticeably faster than alternatives like VS Code, especially on large files or projects.
- Real-time collaboration — Built-in multiplayer editing, chat, screen sharing, and project sharing (like Google Docs for code), perfect for pair programming or team work without external tools.
- Powerful AI assistance — Native integration for code generation, transformation, analysis, agentic editing, and edit predictions, with flexible options (hosted models like Claude, local via Ollama, or your own API keys).
- Minimal yet extensible — Clean, distraction-free interface with optional Vim bindings, Git support, and a growing ecosystem, avoiding bloat while still offering modern features like multi-buffers and advanced syntax understanding via Tree-sitter.
- Native and efficient — Low resource usage and cross-platform support (including a solid Windows version as of late 2025), making it suitable for daily driver use.
Many developers who try it report it brings back the "love" for their editor through its snappiness and thoughtful design.
