Are people really happy with zed or is this the vocal minority we see on HN?
I have tried zed multiple times and always uninstalled it after a few days because of the ugly font rendering, slow response time (!), high memory usage (!!) and being very buggy in general. And don't even get me started on their AI-first shenanigans.
This is on Linux, maybe it works better on other platforms.
I've been using it as a replacement for VSCode/Cursor for the past few months and really like it.
There have been recent changes to the font rendering, it now looks good on my 1440p monitor - when I first tried, it was blurry and instantly gave me a headache. It does seem strange to me that *font rendering* of all things is what a text editor has trouble with. Precise font rendering should be table stakes here.
As for performance/memory usage, it's been top-notch for me on both Linux and macOS.
I had originally switched to try and get away from Microsoft's "only focus on AI features" trend in VSCode, but it seems like Zed has fallen into the same trap.
I'm very happy with zed if I have to compare it to any intellij product
If you're using Windows (+ WSL) then yes, there's a hunch of memory issues currently. Apart from Windows I've never issues though, especially seeing as how intellij indexing takes >1 min and hogs my memory during that period.
The only reason I'm not switching is because Zed's vim bindings are aaalmost perfect. I did not like Vim Mode in VSC or intellij IDE's since it's another keymap I have to learn next to my nvim setup
Same experience, I heard about them in some podcasts, it all sounded good, performance, from the ground up, rust, collaboration, whatever.
Tried it, it was the worse experience I had with an editor since I started my career… then I tried it again because maybe they figured it out… it’s still bad.
I initially loved Zed because it was so much snappier than VSCode/Cursor, but running several Zed instances made my Ryzen/32gb machine unusable together with Claude because Zed seems such a memory hog. Not using it currently anymore.
(Win11)
I've been using it daily for about a year now. I love it. Using most other IDEs feels like a major regression. Multi-buffers are beautifully implemented. I typically use Claude Code if I use an LLM, but their Claude integration is excellent.
Debugging is good. I'd love to see integrated test runners.
I also wish the collaboration was more relevant and fleshed out, but no one I know uses it anyway.
I have done the same multiple times. But for the last 3 months or so. I haven’t touched anything else (well nvim for quick code browsing, but not as editor). I think that might be around the time they fixed the font rendering on Linux.
It’s good. Launches from anywhere from cli with just ‘zed .’ (No logs and artifacts that hold up the terminal). Multiple instances without worry (unlike PyCharm I used before).
It’s good to the point I keep checking to see if there is a “pro” plan, but there isn’t. They just have AI subscriptions.
I tried Zed. It's alright. Unfortunately the devs think it's ok to download and run extra software without asking me (specifically node.js but it would be bad no matter what the software was). I am not willing to use software where the developers have such a cavalier approach to the user's PC, so I went back to Sublime.
Went to Zed from Sublime and never looked back (I'm on Mac).
Never touched VSCode apart of small tests to see that the project setting (format on save, etc) will work for my colleagues. Can't stand it.
I have opened at all times at least 3-4 medium sized front-end projects and at least one large python project and never had memory issues.
I’m on a mac - I’ve been poking at zed a bit and it’s… fine? I was a die hard Textmate user, but that’s not just dead but decayed at this point, and I’ve yet to find anything as good.
I've been trying it out on MacOS for the past couple of weeks and I'm happy with it. I have a fairly vanilla use of my code editors and I find Zed snappier than VSCode. I have not experienced the issues you describe.
Same. MacOS. Tried it. Was okay-ish for several days. But eventually I realised it's worse than WebStorm in basically every aspect, subjectively speaking.
It is slow, it's missing features and it is buggy.
I am not sure I have the same definition of “love my editor again” (from their landing page) as the Zed team… my definition is PG. I don’t see a reason that I need to be 18 to use a code editor.
They did send out a follow-up email about this earlier this week:
---
Our email yesterday was imprecise relative to our actual new Terms. To be specific:
- You must be at least 18 years old to use the Service (Zed’s AI-enabled software-as-a-service offering, including features like account creation/sign in, Zed Free and Zed Pro, and collaboration). See https://zed.dev/terms#21-eligibility. We set the threshold at 18 due to children's data privacy obligations under COPPA, equivalent international frameworks, and an increasing number of state and regional laws that extend protections to anyone under 18. Those regulations require parental consent verification, age-gated data handling, and separate retention policies for minors. Building and maintaining that infrastructure is a real cost for a small team, and getting it wrong carries regulatory risk. Setting the line at 18 lets us maintain a single privacy framework for all account holders without carve-outs.
- Zed's Software (open source code editing software) is governed by our open source licenses. In cases where the open source license can govern, it will over the Terms. See https://zed.dev/terms#24-restrictions.
If you have questions, reply to this email or reach us at [email protected].
> (“Zed,” “we,” or “us”) and our website at www.zed.dev, along with our downloadable Zed software (the “Software”) and related subscription service (the “Service”).
Very clearly draws a distinction between the editor (the "Software") and their subscription service (the "Service")
> Customer must be at least 18 years old to use the Service.
Is very clearly referencing the subscription service (the "Service") and not the editor (the "Software")
Notice how I did not quote the "Customer must be at least 18 years old to use the Service" part. That sentence is completely non-problematic. The part that's a problem is the part I actually quoted:
By agreeing to these Terms, Customer represents and warrants to Zed that: (a) Customer is at least 18 years old
The "Terms" is earlier defined to mean:
these Terms of Service, the Data Processing Addendum (“DPA”), available upon request, and Zed’s Privacy Policy
So the Terms you have to agree to in order to download the editor, clearly state that by agreeing to the Terms, you warrant that you're 18+. ("Customer" is defined to be a synonym for "You", FWIW).
>ARBITRATION NOTICE. Except for certain kinds of disputes described in Section 15.2 (Dispute Resolution and Arbitration), you agree that disputes arising under these Terms will be resolved by binding, individual arbitration, and BY ACCEPTING THESE TERMS, YOU AND ZED ARE EACH WAIVING THE RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY OR TO PARTICIPATE IN ANY CLASS ACTION OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. ALTERNATIVELY, CUSTOMER MAY OPT OUT OF ARBITRATION PER SECTION 15.2(a).
Now here's an area where one of those newfangled large language models actually could do some good: create a spelling checker which doesn't gleefully replace somewhat misspelled or 'mis-swiped' words with correctly spelled but contextually clearly nonsensical ones.
> (“Zed,” “we,” or “us”) and our website at www.zed.dev, along with our downloadable Zed software (the “Software”) and related subscription service (the “Service”).
Very clearly draws a distinction between the editor (the "Software") and their subscription service (the "Service")
> Customer must be at least 18 years old to use the Service.
Is very clearly referencing the subscription service (the "Service") and not the editor (the "Software")
I did not quote "Customer must be at least 18 years old to use the Service" because I, like you, don't find it to be a problem. I don't know why you're saying it back to me. I quoted a different sentence, namely "By agreeing to these Terms, Customer represents and warrants to Zed that: (a) Customer is at least 18 years old", because I think that sentence is a problem. I would appreciate if you would discuss the part of the ToS which I referenced instead of an irrelevant part which I haven't brought up.
I have tried zed multiple times and always uninstalled it after a few days because of the ugly font rendering, slow response time (!), high memory usage (!!) and being very buggy in general. And don't even get me started on their AI-first shenanigans.
This is on Linux, maybe it works better on other platforms.
There have been recent changes to the font rendering, it now looks good on my 1440p monitor - when I first tried, it was blurry and instantly gave me a headache. It does seem strange to me that *font rendering* of all things is what a text editor has trouble with. Precise font rendering should be table stakes here.
As for performance/memory usage, it's been top-notch for me on both Linux and macOS.
I had originally switched to try and get away from Microsoft's "only focus on AI features" trend in VSCode, but it seems like Zed has fallen into the same trap.
If you're using Windows (+ WSL) then yes, there's a hunch of memory issues currently. Apart from Windows I've never issues though, especially seeing as how intellij indexing takes >1 min and hogs my memory during that period.
The only reason I'm not switching is because Zed's vim bindings are aaalmost perfect. I did not like Vim Mode in VSC or intellij IDE's since it's another keymap I have to learn next to my nvim setup
Maybe this is a vim thing? What do emacs and vscode users feel about zed?
Tried it, it was the worse experience I had with an editor since I started my career… then I tried it again because maybe they figured it out… it’s still bad.
Debugging is good. I'd love to see integrated test runners.
I also wish the collaboration was more relevant and fleshed out, but no one I know uses it anyway.
It’s good. Launches from anywhere from cli with just ‘zed .’ (No logs and artifacts that hold up the terminal). Multiple instances without worry (unlike PyCharm I used before).
It’s good to the point I keep checking to see if there is a “pro” plan, but there isn’t. They just have AI subscriptions.
I have opened at all times at least 3-4 medium sized front-end projects and at least one large python project and never had memory issues.
I can't believe the latency of browser based editor is acceptable to people
It is slow, it's missing features and it is buggy.
"Customer must be at least 18 years old to use the Service"
this pretty clearly refers to the subscription service and not to the 'downloadable software' or source code
> By agreeing to these Terms, Customer represents and warrants to Zed that: (a) Customer is at least 18 years old
"these Terms" are the terms you need to agree to in order to download the editor. You can't agree to them if you're under 18.
Really should have called the AI offerings "Zed AI" so as to differentiate it more and avoid confusion like this.
---
Our email yesterday was imprecise relative to our actual new Terms. To be specific:
- You must be at least 18 years old to use the Service (Zed’s AI-enabled software-as-a-service offering, including features like account creation/sign in, Zed Free and Zed Pro, and collaboration). See https://zed.dev/terms#21-eligibility. We set the threshold at 18 due to children's data privacy obligations under COPPA, equivalent international frameworks, and an increasing number of state and regional laws that extend protections to anyone under 18. Those regulations require parental consent verification, age-gated data handling, and separate retention policies for minors. Building and maintaining that infrastructure is a real cost for a small team, and getting it wrong carries regulatory risk. Setting the line at 18 lets us maintain a single privacy framework for all account holders without carve-outs.
- Zed's Software (open source code editing software) is governed by our open source licenses. In cases where the open source license can govern, it will over the Terms. See https://zed.dev/terms#24-restrictions.
If you have questions, reply to this email or reach us at [email protected].
---
> By agreeing to these Terms, Customer represents and warrants to Zed that: (a) Customer is at least 18 years old
> By downloading and using Zed, you agree to its terms and conditions.
That links to: https://zed.dev/terms
> (“Zed,” “we,” or “us”) and our website at www.zed.dev, along with our downloadable Zed software (the “Software”) and related subscription service (the “Service”).
Very clearly draws a distinction between the editor (the "Software") and their subscription service (the "Service")
> Customer must be at least 18 years old to use the Service.
Is very clearly referencing the subscription service (the "Service") and not the editor (the "Software")
[1]: https://codeberg.org/GramEditor/gram
That's gonna be a no from me, dawg.
Now here's an area where one of those newfangled large language models actually could do some good: create a spelling checker which doesn't gleefully replace somewhat misspelled or 'mis-swiped' words with correctly spelled but contextually clearly nonsensical ones.
> (“Zed,” “we,” or “us”) and our website at www.zed.dev, along with our downloadable Zed software (the “Software”) and related subscription service (the “Service”).
Very clearly draws a distinction between the editor (the "Software") and their subscription service (the "Service")
> Customer must be at least 18 years old to use the Service.
Is very clearly referencing the subscription service (the "Service") and not the editor (the "Software")
I did not quote "Customer must be at least 18 years old to use the Service" because I, like you, don't find it to be a problem. I don't know why you're saying it back to me. I quoted a different sentence, namely "By agreeing to these Terms, Customer represents and warrants to Zed that: (a) Customer is at least 18 years old", because I think that sentence is a problem. I would appreciate if you would discuss the part of the ToS which I referenced instead of an irrelevant part which I haven't brought up.