Visual Studio Code has a greater number of built-in features that Atom provides through extensions and third-party applications. Visual Studio Code fares better than Atom, but either is noticeably slow when compared to an editor like Vim or even Sublime Text. This changes when you’re editing huge files. VS Code has the clear advantage when it comes to performance, but neither editor is slow on a modern machine.
However, in the long run, Atom may be the smarter option as the program is designed to host beginners, and be mastered by the pros.
Notepad++ vs Atom: Conclusion Users may find Notepad++ to be the simplest software to use as they conquer the basics. Although themes and extensions don’t make as dramatic of a difference in VSCode as they do in Atom, Visual Studio Code handles the extensions more efficiently for an overall faster experience. Visual Studio Code, however, is more powerful than Atom. There occurs some lag and slowness in the Atom editor while editing heavy files. Atom being the heaviest in size, it becomes difficult to work with heavy files.
