The code editor market has consolidated around two serious options in 2026: VS Code (Microsoft, the historical default, free, huge extension ecosystem) and Antigravity (Anthropic, agent-first, deep Claude integration). Both are excellent choices depending on your use case. Here is what you need to decide.
What they have in common
- Free to install and for personal use.
- Cross-platform: Windows, macOS, Linux.
- Multi-file editing, project-wide search, Git integrated in the sidebar.
- Integrated terminal (a tab at the bottom that opens your shell).
- Extensible via a marketplace.
- VS Code forks (Antigravity is technically based on the same open-source editor, Code OSS), so most shortcuts and the interface are identical.
If you know one, you will find your way in the other within five minutes.
Where VS Code shines
- Extension ecosystem: the VS Code marketplace is the largest on the market, with more than 70,000 extensions. Nearly every language, framework, and integration has one.
- Documentation and tutorials: if you get stuck, nine times out of ten the answer is already on Stack Overflow or in a video.
- Proven stability: version 1.0 in 2016, team of several dozen people at Microsoft.
- Team familiarity: if you join a company, this is probably what everyone uses.
Where Antigravity shines
- Claude is integrated end to end: agent in the sidebar, agentic editing, long-running tasks in the background. You do not need to install a separate Claude Code extension, it is native.
- Agent-first workflow: the IDE is designed around human-plus-model collaboration, not just autocomplete.
- Stable for a few months: officially released late 2025, still evolving fast.
- For personal use: if you work alone or in a very small team and use Claude every day, the native integration saves real time.
Our recommendation
- VS Code if you are a beginner or working in a team on an existing project: you will benefit from the extension ecosystem and team familiarity. You can always install the Claude Code extension to get the agent in a sidebar.
- Antigravity if you work alone or in a very small team, use Claude every day, and want the deepest integration possible.
You can have both installed in parallel: no conflict, they use their own config folders.
What comes next
The next lesson walks you through installing VS Code (or Antigravity, the steps are nearly identical) and setting it up for your first project.