Sublime Text vs Visual Studio Code
Sublime Text is a paid editor with a free evaluation, while Visual Studio Code is free and includes a terminal, debugging and Git.
Pick Sublime Text if…
Pick Sublime Text if you want a paid editor with a one-time personal licence and a native app on Windows, macOS and Linux, including ARM64 on Linux.
Pick Visual Studio Code if…
Pick Visual Studio Code if you want a free editor with built-in debugging, Git and a terminal, or one you can also open in the browser.
Price
- Paid
- Free
- Open source
Starting price
Free plan
Open source
Works on
| Feature | Paid code, markup and prose editor for Windows, macOS and Linux with a free evaluation. | Free code editor from Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Linux and the web, built on open-source code. |
|---|---|---|
| Price |
|
|
| Starting price | $99 USD (personal licence, one-time, includes 3 years of updates) | — |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Works on | Windows, macOS, Linux | Windows, macOS, Linux, Web |
| Try Sublime Text (opens the Sublime Text website in a new tab) | Try Visual Studio Code (opens the Visual Studio Code website in a new tab) |
Cost is the main split. Sublime Text can be downloaded and evaluated free with no enforced time limit, but a licence must be bought for continued use. A personal licence is $99 USD, one-time, with 3 years of updates, and business licences start at $65 per seat per year. Microsoft's FAQ says VS Code is free for private or commercial use.
Licensing is not the same either. Sublime Text is covered by its End User License Agreement. The VS Code source repository is under the MIT licence, while the VS Code build Microsoft distributes is under a Microsoft product licence.
On features, Sublime Text lists a GPU-accelerated interface, multiple selections, split views, context-aware auto complete, and a Python 3.8 plugin API. VS Code lists an integrated terminal, run and debug support, built-in Git, Settings Sync, profiles and remote development.
VS Code also runs in the browser at vscode.dev and sends usage data to Microsoft by default, which can be turned off. Sublime Text's pages list Windows, macOS and Linux downloads only.
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Last updated 16 October 2026. How we make money