Helix
FreeA modal editor with LSP and syntax highlighting out of the box — no night of configuration
A modal terminal editor written in Rust with language server support, tree-sitter syntax highlighting and multiple selections built in — usable the moment it is installed, with no plugins to add and no config file to write. Its editing model follows Kakoune's selection-first approach, the reverse of Vim's verb-then-object order.
Why we picked it
MPL-2.0, 46,100 stars.
Neovim arrives as a blank sheet: getting LSP, completion, syntax highlighting and fuzzy finding working is routinely an evening with init.lua, followed by maintaining compatibility between plugins. Helix builds those in. Install it, open a Rust or Python file, and completion and go-to-definition already work, highlighting runs on tree-sitter, multiple selections and fuzzy finding are present. Doing real work at zero configuration is its most concrete selling point.
The editing model runs opposite to Vim. Vim is d2w, verb first; Helix selects first and then acts,
with the selection always visible — you see exactly what will be deleted before pressing delete.
Long-time Vim users will find the first couple of days awkward, but the model is self-consistent and
pays off during multi-cursor editing.
To be clear about:
- There is no plugin system. That is both why it stays simple and where its ceiling is: the Git integrations, file trees and debugger UIs available in Neovim are not available here. A plugin system has been in progress for a long time and has not landed. Anyone who leans heavily on plugins should stay put.
- Keybindings are not Vim-compatible, so the muscle memory has to be regrown. If you only edit a config file occasionally, that cost is not worth paying.