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All articlesEngineering · 6 min read

VS Code using too much memory? A lightweight VS Code alternative

Why VS Code uses so much RAM, how Veyra keeps the same editor and shortcuts while staying light on memory, and how to compare the two yourself in a few minutes.

If you have ever opened Task Manager and found your code editor near the top of the memory list, you are not alone. "VS Code using too much memory" is one of the most common complaints about the world's most popular editor, and it gets worse on laptops with 8 GB of RAM, when several projects are open at once, or when a browser full of documentation tabs is competing for the same memory.

Veyra is a free, lightweight VS Code alternative built for exactly that situation. It keeps what makes VS Code pleasant to use (the same Monaco editor, the same shortcuts, a command palette, Git and a terminal) and changes what sits underneath.

Why VS Code uses so much memory

VS Code is built on Electron. Electron apps ship their own copy of the Chromium browser engine and the Node.js runtime, and they run as several cooperating processes:

  • a main process that manages windows and the app,
  • a renderer for each window (a full Chromium page),
  • a GPU process and other Chromium helper processes,
  • an extension host, a separate Node.js process where every extension runs,
  • and extra processes for language servers, file watching and search.

That design is a big part of why VS Code is so flexible: any extension can run almost any code. The cost is memory. Every window carries a browser engine and a JavaScript runtime, and every extension and language server adds more on top.

How Veyra stays light

Veyra is a native app written in Rust, built with Tauri. Three choices keep it light:

  1. No bundled browser. Veyra draws its interface with the web view that is already part of your operating system (WebView2 on Windows, WebKit on macOS and Linux) instead of shipping its own Chromium. That's also why the Windows installer is about 8 MB instead of about 100 MB.
  2. A small Rust core. Files, Git, search, the terminal and the language tools are handled by compiled Rust code rather than a Node.js runtime.
  3. No extension host. The tools most developers install extensions for (TypeScript, ESLint, Prettier, Tailwind CSS, Emmet, Python) are one-click installs inside Veyra, and they start only for the languages you actually open.

The result is an editor that opens quickly and leaves more memory for the things that actually need it: your browser, your dev server, Docker and the app you're building.

Compare them yourself

Memory use depends on your project, your extensions and your operating system, so the most honest benchmark is the one you run on your own machine. It takes about five minutes:

  1. Install Veyra from the download page. Keep VS Code installed.
  2. Open the same project folder in both editors, with the same files open.
  3. Wait a minute, so both have finished starting their language tools.
  4. Check memory:
    • On Windows, open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc). Expand Visual Studio Code and Veyra Studio under Apps, and add up the Memory column for each.
    • On macOS, open Activity Monitor, go to the Memory tab and search for "Code" and then "Veyra". Remember that VS Code shows up as several "Code Helper" processes.
  5. Use both for an hour of normal work and check again.

Count every process that belongs to each editor. For Veyra, that includes the "WebView2" (Windows) or "WebContent" (macOS) processes it starts. For VS Code, it includes all of its "Code Helper" processes.

What you keep when you switch

Moving from VS Code to Veyra is mostly painless, because so much is shared:

  • The same editor: Monaco, with multi-cursor editing, IntelliSense, code folding and the minimap.
  • The same shortcuts: Ctrl+P to open a file, Ctrl+Shift+P for commands, Ctrl+B for the sidebar and Ctrl+` for the terminal.
  • Git built in: stage, commit, branch, stash and view diffs and the commit graph.
  • A real terminal: PowerShell, zsh or bash, with several sessions side by side.
  • AI if you want it: Veyra AI is built in, with free requests on a free account and every AI edit shown as a diff you approve.

Our step-by-step guide, Moving from VS Code to Veyra in ten minutes, walks through the switch.

What to know before you switch

Lighter has trade-offs, and we would rather you know them up front:

  • VS Code extensions that run their own code don't work in Veyra yet. Themes and snippets from Open VSX do, and the most popular language tools are built in. An extension host is on our roadmap.
  • The debugger covers Python today, with Node.js next.
  • Language servers still use memory. The TypeScript language server, for example, needs about the same memory whichever editor starts it. Veyra saves memory in the editor itself, not in the tools you choose to run.

If your work depends on a particular VS Code extension, keep VS Code for that project and use Veyra for the rest. Plenty of developers do.

Try it

Veyra is free and open source for Windows, macOS and Linux. Download Veyra, open your project and see the difference in Task Manager for yourself. You can also compare features side by side on our VS Code alternative page.

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