Zed: A Modern Editor Built for Collaboration

Actualizado: 2026-05-03

Zed^[1] is the editor built by Nathan Sobo (Atom’s creator) and team, after leaving GitHub. Released open-source in January 2024, it is an explicit bet: “Atom but genuinely fast, written in Rust, with live collaboration as a native feature”. In a world dominated by VS Code and its forks (Cursor, Codespaces), is there room for another editor? This article takes an honest look at what Zed offers, where it shines, and where it still falls short.

Key Takeaways

• Zed is written in Rust with its own GPU-rendering UI framework — no Electron, no WebView. The latency and memory difference is real and measurable.
• Real-time collaboration is native, not a bolt-on plugin: integrated voice, shared cursors, and following mode designed into the core.
• The extensions ecosystem is the current weakness: VS Code has a clear advantage for corporate extensions and devcontainer/remote workflows.
• For developers working in pairs or teams of 3-4 with Rust/Go/JS/TS/Python stacks, Zed is the most interesting alternative to VS Code in years.
• Released under GPL v3 (core) + Apache 2.0 (components), it does not depend solely on the company for its continuity.

The Technical Bet

Zed is 100% Rust. Its own UI framework, GPUI, renders directly on GPU via Metal (macOS) and eventually Vulkan (Linux). No Electron, no WebView.

Practical, measurable consequences:

• Exceptional latency: keyboard → screen in ~8ms, notably lower than VS Code.
• Low memory use: ~100-200 MB vs 500 MB-1 GB for Electron applications.
• Fluid scrolling and navigation even on large files.
• Sub-second startup, even with large projects.

Live Collaboration, Not Bolt-On

The differentiating feature is native collaboration, integrated from day one — not added as a later plugin:

• Integrated voice (like Discord) between project collaborators.
• Shared cursors for each collaborator, colour-coded and named.
• Following mode: follow what another is viewing — file switch, line jump, all follows.
• Share project with one click to channel members.

Not “Live Share on top” — designed into the core. The collaboration model is “work together in the same editor”, not “async co-edit”.

Languages and LSP

Zed supports LSP. Languages with mature support: Rust, JavaScript / TypeScript, Python, Go, Markdown, JSON, YAML, TOML, C/C++ via clangd. Supported but less polished: PHP, Ruby, Elixir, Swift, Zig, Lua.

Zed vs VS Code vs Cursor

Zed is faster. VS Code is more extensible and mature. Cursor is better for AI-intensive workflows.

Installation

# macOS
brew install --cask zed

# Linux (Ubuntu 22.04+, Debian 12+, Arch, Fedora)
curl -f https://zed.dev/install.sh | sh

Where Zed Shines and Falls Short

Best option for: pairs and teams of 3-4 working on the same code; remote pair programming with integrated voice; laptops struggling with VS Code memory; Rust/Go/JS/TS/Python stacks.

Falls short for: specific corporate extensions that don’t exist in Zed; remote dev with SSH, containers, or WSL; Python data science and notebooks; Windows (still in development); large teams with heavy devcontainer flows.

Conclusion

Zed is a serious editor, not a toy. It is out of preview and its business model (open editor + collaboration SaaS) is plausible. For developers who value performance and real-time collaboration, it is the most interesting VS Code alternative in years. For large teams with corporate extension ecosystems or heavy devcontainer and remote flows, VS Code (or Cursor) remain more productive.

1. Zed