Zed
Visit Zed →About Zed
Zed is a code editor built entirely in Rust, designed from the ground up for performance and low latency. Version 1.0, released April 29, 2026, marks a five-year development milestone and the first stable release suitable for production teams. The editor is fast by design — Rust eliminates the overhead that slows Electron-based editors like VS Code and Cursor under heavy load.
The flagship feature of Zed 1.0 is Parallel Agents: users can run multiple AI agents simultaneously, each working on a different part of the codebase independently. One agent can refactor a module while another writes tests for a second module and a third agent handles documentation — all concurrently. This is a meaningful productivity gain over single-threaded agent workflows that require waiting for one task to finish before starting the next.
In January 2026, Zed co-authored the Agent Client Protocol (ACP) with JetBrains, establishing a cross-editor standard for how AI agents communicate with development environments. ACP means agents built for Zed can also run in JetBrains IDEs and vice versa, reducing vendor lock-in in the AI coding agent ecosystem.
Model support in Zed 1.0 includes GPT-5.5, DeepSeek V4, and MiMo V2.5, giving developers access to a range of frontier models directly inside the editor without configuring separate API keys per provider. Git graph view and split diffs are new interface features that improve code review workflows within the editor itself.
Zed is free for individual developers. The Business plan adds organization-wide AI policy enforcement, centralized billing, and AI governance controls — useful for engineering teams that need to manage model access and usage across large groups.
Zed is best for developers who want a fast, resource-efficient editor with serious parallel AI agent capability, and for teams that need centralized AI governance without adopting a heavyweight enterprise tool.
- Built in Rust — significantly faster and lighter than Electron-based editors like VS Code
- Parallel Agents: run multiple AI agents concurrently on different codebase sections
- Agent Client Protocol (ACP) with JetBrains — agents are cross-editor compatible
- Supports GPT-5.5, DeepSeek V4, MiMo V2.5 — broad frontier model access built in
- Free for individuals; Business plan adds org-wide AI policy and centralized billing
- Version 1.0 — ecosystem of extensions and plugins is smaller than VS Code or JetBrains
- Business plan governance features require paid subscription — pricing not publicly listed
- Rust-native architecture means some VS Code extensions are not compatible
- Parallel agents feature is new — complex multi-agent coordination can produce conflicts
Choose Zed if…
- ✅ You prioritize raw editor speed — Zed is built in Rust and is significantly faster than Electron-based editors
- ✅ You want native real-time multiplayer collaboration baked into the editor
- ✅ You're a developer who wants a minimal, focused editor without heavy AI complexity
- ✅ You want AI assistance (Zed AI) without switching from a fast, native editor
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