21 Best VSCode Extensions Every Developer Should Know (2024)

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is the most popular IDE, with over 73% of developers using it worldwide.

One key reason for its popularity is that it is lightweight and rich in features. You can customize its ability with powerful extensions.

VSCode extensions enhance the editor’s functionality and make coding faster, more efficient, and enjoyable.

In this article, you will explore some of the best VS Code extensions that can boost your productivity and take your coding experience to the next level.

How Can VSCode Extensions Improve Your Workflow?

Whether you are a beginner looking to improve your workflow or an experienced developer, the VSCode marketplace has a wide range of extensions to suit every developer’s needs.

Here are some key benefits of using these extensions:

• You can customize your coding environment to your specific needs and preferences.
• You can automate repetitive tasks using code snippets and VSCode Keyboard shortcuts to write code faster and with fewer errors.
• Specialized features for different programming languages and frameworks.
• Integration with popular tools such as version control systems (Git) to manage your code repositories more efficiently.
• AI coding assistant, collaboration, and code sharing tools for code reviews, suggestions, and resolving issues directly in the editor.

21 Best VSCode Extensions

Every developer should have some top VS Code extensions in their toolkit.

Live Server

Live Server launches a local development server with live reloading, so you can see changes in real time as you code.

It is a must-have extension for web development, providing a convenient way to preview and test projects while remaining productive.

Key Features:

• It has over 46+ million installs, and it is free.
• You can view static pages and dynamic content that refreshes when changes occur.
• Start or stop the server by clicking the Go Live button from the status bar.
• Customizable settings for the port number, server root, and default browser.

Snappify

It is a tool for creating beautiful code snippets. You can use it to explain technical concepts and share your code with others.

You can create stunning presentations of your code with powerful animation and code editing features to create a visually rich experience for your audience.

To create a Snap using the VSCode Extension, select the desired code and right-click -> “Open in Snappify.” This will lead you directly to Snappify, where you can edit your snap to your heart’s content.

You can also use the Command Palette (Ctrl + Shift + P) to execute the command.

Key Features:

• You can style your snaps with texts, arrows, code highlights, or custom images to explain how your code works.
• Add multiple code windows to explain differences or comparisons.
• Share your snippets as images, videos, embedded snaps, or public URLs.
• Create and share snippets faster with API and built-in templates.
• It has over 12.9k installs.

Code Spell Checker

Code Spell Checker extension for Visual Studio Code is designed to help find and correct common spelling errors in the source code and comments.

Misspelled words will have a squiggly underline, which can be corrected using automatic suggestions.

Key Features:

• It has over 10+ million installs.
• It supports multiple languages and file types.
• You can create custom dictionaries using technical terms.

GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot is one of the best extensions to increase your productivity as a developer.

It gives you real-time code suggestions powered by OpenAI right in your IDE to save time and improve flow while coding.

You can also write a comment in English describing what you want the code to do and let AI write the code for you.

Key Features:

• It has over 14.6+ million installs.
• Auto-complete suggestions from an AI pair programmer trained on billions of lines of code from GitHub repositories to build software faster.
• It supports all the popular languages, including Java, PHP, Python, JavaScript, Ruby, Go or C++, and more.

GitLens

GitLens is a powerful tool designed to enhance the Git version control capabilities in VS Code.

With GitLens, you can navigate Git repositories and get valuable insights with rich visualizations directly in your editor to reduce context switching and focus on code quality.

Key Features:

• It has over 30+ million installs.
• Easily visualize who wrote the code and recent changes with Git blame annotations.
• View commit graphs, file history, and rebase operations with an interactive rebase editor.

Auto Rename Tag

The Auto Rename Tag extension is a convenient tool for automatically renaming paired HTML or XML tags when one of them is edited.

If you rename the opening or closing tag, the other tag will automatically renamed to match it.

With over 17+ million installs, this useful extension reduces the time and effort required to update tag names and helps avoid errors in your code.

Auto Close Tag

Auto Close Tag is another useful VSCode extension that automatically adds an HTML/XML closing tag when you type in the closing bracket of the opening tag.

With this time-saving extension, you don’t need to worry about writing the closing tag again.

• It has 12+ million installs.
• You can configure settings of tags that you don’t want to be auto-closed.
• It supports languages like XML, PHP, Vue, JavaScript, and TypeScript.

Prettier

Prettier is an opinionated code formatter for Visual Studio Code that enforces a consistent style throughout your codebase.

When you save a file, it automatically formats code according to default rules and standards to ensure your code is readable throughout a project without manual effort.

Key Features:

• It has over 42+ million installs.
• You can customize formatting rules to match your project’s coding standards.
• Prettier supports multiple programming languages.

Color Highlight

Color Highlight is a useful extension highlighting color values directly in your code editor.

If you are a front-end developer working with CSS, this handy tool can help you visualize hex color codes, making it easier to differentiate between colors in your codebase.

• It has over 6.5+ million installs.
• Color highlight updates in real-time so you can see the visual impact of your changes instantly.

Image Preview

Image Preview is another useful extension that lets you view image files in the VS Code editor without opening them in an external image viewer.

• You can preview images in the gutter or when you hover over them to easily navigate through multiple images.
• It has over 2.2 million installs.

VSCode Icons

VSCode Icons is a basic extension, but it is handy when working on a large project with multiple files.

With this extension, you can replace default icons with custom icons that are visually more appealing.

• It has over 17+ million installs.
• You can choose an icon from various icon packs or create a custom one with the style, spacing, and color of your choice for easy navigation.

Indent-Rainbow

Indent-Rainbow is a simple extension that makes indentation easier to read by adding color in front of your text.

With over 7+ million installs, this extension is particularly useful when writing code in indentation-dependent languages like Python or Yaml.

You can add colors of your choice to various indentation levels for easier visualization.

Tabnine

Tabnine is an AI coding assistant that speeds up your workflow by providing real-time code completion, chat, and code generation in your IDE.

Key Features:

• It has 7+ million installs.
• You can generate code for a specific task and documentation and write unit tests.
• It supports all the major programming languages, libraries, and frameworks.

Tailwind CSS IntelliSense

Tailwind CSS IntelliSense is designed to enhance the Tailwind development experience by providing intelligent code completions, documentation, and syntax highlighting.

Key Features:

• It has over 5.7+ million installs
• Intelligent autocomplete and code suggestions for Tailwind CSS classes, utilities, and variants.
• Highlighting bugs and errors in both CSS and markup.

Live Share

Live Share is among the best VS Code extensions for collaborative development and remote pair programming.

You can collaborate with others in real-time while using your editor preferences for themes and keybindings.

Key Features:

• It has over 16+ million installs.
• You can edit and share your code, debugging sessions, and terminal instances with others without cloning repos or installing SDKs.

Remote - SSH

Remote - SSH is a powerful extension that allows you to securely connect to a remote server or machine with an SSH server and use it as your development environment.

You can work on projects, debug applications, and open, edit, and save files on a remote server directly in VS Code.

Key Features:

• It has over 19.9+ million installs.
• It is ideal for cloud development, remote team collaboration, or when working on large projects requiring more specialized hardware.

Relative Path

Relative Path extension for VS Code lets you get relative URL paths to any file in your workspace.

It is particularly useful when working on large projects with multiple files.

• Instead of manually typing the whole path, press Ctrl + Shift + H and start typing the filename you want to get autocomplete suggestions.
• It has 286k installs.

TODO Highlight

TODO Highlight is another useful Visual Studio Code extension that boosts your productivity by helping you keep track of TODO, FIXME, other annotations, and keywords in your code.

You can manage your tasks more effectively when you can easily spot the things not done yet.

Key Features:

• It has over 4.3 million installs.
• This extension highlights your notes and todos so you can easily track them and return them later to manage them.
• You can customize your keywords and highlighting styles.

Todo Tree

As the name suggests, Todo Tree gives you a tree view of your TODO and FIXME comments for easy navigation.

You can simply click a TODO within the tree, which will open the file with the cursor placed on the line with the selected TODO.

Key Features:

• It has over 4.2+ million installs.
• You can view the tree in the activity bar, but drag it anywhere.
• You can also highlight the TODOs you found in open files in a color of your choice.

Markdown All In One

Markdown All In One is the extension you need if you like using Markdown files.

VS Code offers basic Markdown support, but with this extension, you can easily create files, blog posts, or any docs that require formatting with added functionality.

• You can write Markdown documents with keyboard shortcuts, auto preview files, autocompletion, and table of contents as easily as you write code.
• It has over 8.2+ million installs.

Better Comments

Better Comments extension helps you improve your code comments to enhance readability.

You can strengthen your comments with colors and annotate them into different categories, such as alerts, TODOs, highlights, queries, etc.

• It has over 6.5+ million installs.
• It has an extensive list of supported languages.
• You can also style lines of commented code to make it clear.

Final Words

VS Code has a vast ecosystem of extensions that will help boost your productivity, save time, and improve your workflow.

Focus on tasks that matter and let our recommended extensions streamline your development process.

If you like this article, check out the Best VSCode Themes to beautify your coding experience.

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