Kate vs Visual Studio Code
Kate
kate-editor.org
Visual Studio Code
code.visualstudio.comSide by side
| Figure | Kate | Visual Studio Code |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Text Editors | 8.5 (#14) | 9.0 (#3) |
| Spec score · Code editors | 8.5 (#10) | 9.0 (#2) |
| Spec score · PHP IDEs | 8.3 (#6) | 8.2 (#9) |
| Spec score · Go IDEs | 8.2 (#12) | 8.2 (#14) |
| Column editing | Yes | Yes |
| Extension support | Yes | Yes |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-cursor editing | Yes | Yes |
| Privacy | KDE says its software generally does not transfer information from users’ devices except after explicit user action; any telemetry is opt-in and disabled by default. | VS Code collects telemetry, which users can disable with the telemetry.telemetryLevel setting; extensions may collect separate telemetry. |
| Product | Kate is a text editor for viewing and editing text files. | Visual Studio Code is a code editor with AI assisted development features. |
| Supported platforms | Linux,BSD,Windows,macOS | web,windows,macos,linux |
Plans
In their own words
Kate
Kate is a free text editor for viewing and editing text files on Linux, macOS and Windows. It can show multiple documents in horizontally or vertically split windows, and supports multi-cursor and column editing. For code and other structured text, Kate provides syntax highlighting for over 400 languages, bracket matching and on-the-fly spell checking. Programming tools include auto-completion with argument hints, scriptable auto-indentation and Vi input mode; the editor uses the Language Server Protocol for auto-completion in many languages. Search and replace handles regular expressions, multiline searches, open files and files on disk. Listed plugins include an embedded terminal, SQL, build, GDB and Replace in Files tools. Kate can open remote files and supports Unicode and other encodings. Backups on save and swap files can help recover data after a system crash. The editor is free, and its listed plan describes it as available for Linux, Windows and macOS. Nightly packages are compiled daily, but may be unstable or incomplete and are recommended for testing.
Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code is an open-source code editor with AI-assisted development features for macOS, Linux, Windows, and the web. It offers inline AI suggestions and intelligent completions, and its agent workflows can plan tasks, change code, run commands, and iterate. Users can switch between agent work and direct coding in the same editor. Agent workflows work with Copilot and third-party providers, and users can supply their own model key. The editor includes JavaScript, TypeScript, CSS, and HTML support; extensions add support for other languages. Its Marketplace lists more than 80,000 extensions. Built-in tools include Git source control, an integrated terminal, code running and debugging, build tasks, and local history. It connects to GitHub Codespaces and remote development environments, while Settings Sync and profiles help carry and organize customizations. The browser version has a limited execution environment. VS Code is free for private or commercial use at free. A GitHub account is required to start building with AI agents.