Sublime Text vs Visual Studio Code

Native C++ UI still opens huge files where Electron editors throttle. Build 4200 keeps the instant startup story that Mac users cite when comparing against VS Code with many extensions.

Sublime uses 'Package Control' to manage plugins. The library is extensive and covers almost all languages, but the ecosystem moves slower than VS Code's. Configuring plugins often requires editing JSON files rather than using a settings GUI, which raises the barrier to entry. While high-quality packages exist (like LSP), they often lack the polish and deep integration found in the Microsoft ecosystem.

Out of the box, Sublime offers basic word-based autocompletion. To get IntelliSense-quality completion, install the LSP package and configure language servers manually. Once set up, completion is accurate and useful, but that initial configuration step is more work than VS Code's pre-wired language extensions.

Sublime invented the 'Goto Anything' (Cmd+P) interface, and it remains the fastest implementation. Indexing is incredibly fast; you can jump to symbols, lines, or files across a repository of 50,000 files instantly. The 'Find in Files' feature is also significantly faster than VS Code's, allowing for rapid refactoring across massive codebases without the search interface hanging or lagging.

Sublime Text is an editor, not an IDE. It does not have a native debugger. While you can install packages to interface with debug adapters (DAP), the experience is often clunky compared to a native implementation. You generally have to rely on external terminal tools or browser developer tools for debugging, which breaks the flow of development for some users.

Sublime has a separate tool called 'Sublime Merge' (paid separately) which is fantastic, but the editor itself has only basic Git integration (diff markers in the gutter). While you can perform some Git operations via packages, it doesn't offer the visual merge conflict resolvers or commit history timelines inside the editor that VS Code provides natively.

AI arrives through community packages and LSP bridges, not a first-party agent host. Useful for completions, weaker for chat-centric Copilot workflows that assume VS Code UI.

Sublime Text pioneered multi-cursor editing. While VS Code has copied it, Sublime's implementation still feels slightly more precise and predictable. Adding cursors with Cmd+D or column selection feels incredibly fluid. It handles hundreds of cursors simultaneously without any UI lag, whereas VS Code can sometimes stutter if you try to edit 500 lines simultaneously with multiple cursors.