Why I Switched from VS Code to Neovim and Why You Might Too

There’s a few first moments in life you never really forget. That first time you drive a car, the first time you write “hello world,” the first time you see a co-worker using Vim in a pair programming session.

In November 2024, I decided it was time for a change. As a longtime VS Code user, I was starting to grow frustrated with the tool. At the same time, I was grinding away on large marketing site rebuilds, working in isolation for weeks at a time, which gave me a lot of time to think about why I was unhappy in the first place.

Here’s what I came up with:

1. VS Code felt very slow and bloated compared to the terminal-based tools I used.
2. I was unhappy with the constant updates and unwanted changes that were forced upon me—like Microsoft altering shortcuts.
3. I was in a never-ending battle with VS Code assuming how to configure whitespace in the documents I opened. This pain was very noticeable on projects that weren’t consistent with coding standards.
4. Since a lot of my work involved working in 3 repos at once, I found myself trying to locate open projects in a sea of VS Code instances.
5. Oftentimes I struggled to stay focused. I felt like there was a lot of noise and distraction, and the “Zen” mode wasn’t a great solution for me.
6. Most importantly, I just felt like the tool lost its magic compared to when I first started using it.

These issues had been lingering in the back of my mind, and I finally hit a breaking point and started researching new tools. Then, I remembered that time Sal Ferrarello effortlessly zoomed through code changes using Vim during a pair programming session. Seeing him breeze through code changes like a code assassin was something I never forgot. So, he was the first person I reached out to for advice on getting started with Neovim.

Friday: Discovering Neovim

After I shared some of my current IDE frustrations, Sal gladly helped clarify a few things and gave me some great recommendations.

1. Check out TypeCraft’s Neovim for Newbs course.
2. Use the :Tutor command to learn Vim motions.
3. Explore prebuilt Neovim configs like LazyVim or LunarVim, but start simple until you know what you want.
4. Learn the difference between Vim and Neovim. (In short: Vim is the original; Neovim is a community-driven fork with modern features like Lua-based plugins.)

After work on a Friday night, I jumped headfirst into the TypeCraft series. I only planned to watch a few videos—but ended up binging them like a Netflix special. I went to bed full of ideas about how I could change my workflow.

Saturday: Learning with :Tutor

It wasn’t long after installing Neovim that it was clear—I didn’t really know how to use it. That’s where the built-in :Tutor command came in. I spent the weekend learning the basics through its interactive tutorial. While my wife and son watched Disney movies, I practiced basic Vim motions—and it was actually fun!

It starts with the basics: navigating lines, exiting Vim, then slowly builds up. It doesn’t take long, and by the end, you’ll have a decent grasp of how to interact with buffers—and even understand what a buffer is.

Sunday: Confidence from the Basics

After completing :Tutor, I felt like I had accomplished something meaningful. I opened up a side project to see what I could do. To my surprise, I was able to navigate a single file with newfound confidence. Unfortunately, that confidence was short-lived, as I quickly realized I didn’t know how to navigate a project the same way I would in VS Code. Simple things like quickly switching between files, searching the codebase, or cloning a file suddenly became unknowns.

With so many questions in mind, I created a running list of questions and wanted features. That way, I could add to it over time and ask the right questions later on.

Monday: My First Work Week with Neovim

Monday morning came quickly and marked the start of a new work week. On Sunday night, I told myself I’d use Neovim exclusively—and only fall back to VS Code if absolutely necessary.

As expected, the first few days were slow. I constantly had to pause and learn how to do simple things: duplicating a file, switching buffers, searching, and replacing. But despite the friction, it felt fun. It was a breath of fresh air.

Sidebar: For this first week I opted to use the most basic Neovim configuration that I could. I had only a few plugins and custom shortcuts that I had figured out from the weekend. I chose this route over a pre-configured setup so that I could understand more and edit as needed while working.

By the following Friday, I was feeling great. I wrapped up big tasks and felt significantly more focused. That simplicity I was chasing? I found it. It helped me think more clearly—and that was a huge personal win. Repetition throughout the week helped too. The more I used Vim motions without thinking, the more drunk with power I became. I felt faster and more in control.

A Few Months In

A few months later, I had tackled most of the items on my wishlist. My confidence had grown tremendously, and I felt pretty comfortable using Neovim as my daily driver.

With this comfort, I decided it was time to configure GitHub Copilot. After taking a break from it, it was clear that I had gained some less-than-ideal habits. At first, I constantly found myself pausing for autocomplete and forgetting how to write for loops without looking them up. Things that I once wrote effortlessly blossomed into a struggle. However, like riding a bike, the muscle memory came back after a day or two.

After installing Copilot, I made sure to learn the disable command :Copilot disable so that I could prevent the unwanted autocompletes when needed. To this day I use it whenever Copilot gets too liberal with the “suggestions.”

Eventually, I integrated Tmux into my workflow. While it’s not a tool specifically for Neovim, it massively improved my workflow. I often work in multiple repos per project, and Tmux made it easy to jump between them—right where I left off. I could even run multiple terminals for each: one for Neovim, one for build scripts, and one for Git.

Surprisingly, I grew faster at using external tools such as browser inspectors, terminal apps, and other command line integrations. It became a new personal challenge to learn and use the shortcuts whenever possible. I even explored new terminal-based tools like Yazi and figured out better ways to manage browser tabs, snap windows,

Article by Micheal England.