# Code editors privacy ratings

Editors and IDEs without telemetry.

| Name | Grade | Jurisdiction | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [GNU Emacs](https://privacyratings.com/code-editors/gnu-emacs/) | B (80/100) | United States (Five Eyes) | Extensible text editor from the GNU Project, programmable in Emacs Lisp, with packages for code editing, Org mode, email, Git and more. |
| [Helix](https://privacyratings.com/code-editors/helix/) | B (80/100) | Unknown | Modal terminal text editor written in Rust, inspired by Kakoune, with multiple selections, built-in LSP support and Tree-sitter syntax highlighting. |
| [Kate](https://privacyratings.com/code-editors/kate/) | B (80/100) | Germany (Fourteen Eyes) | Text and code editor from KDE with tabs, split views, LSP support, a built-in terminal and plugins. |
| [Neovim](https://privacyratings.com/code-editors/neovim/) | B (80/100) | Unknown | Fork of Vim focused on extensibility, with a Lua plugin API, a built-in LSP client, Tree-sitter support and an embeddable editor core. |
| [Pulsar](https://privacyratings.com/code-editors/pulsar/) | B (80/100) | Unknown | Community-maintained continuation of the Atom editor, hackable through JavaScript packages and themes, with its own package registry. |
| [VSCodium](https://privacyratings.com/code-editors/vscodium/) | B (80/100) | Unknown | Community builds of Microsoft's VS Code source under the MIT license, without Microsoft branding and with telemetry turned off. Uses the Open VSX extension registry by default. |
| [Sublime Text](https://privacyratings.com/code-editors/sublime-text/) | D (50/100) | Australia (Five Eyes) | Cross-platform text and code editor with multiple selections, a command palette, Git integration and a Python plugin API. Free to evaluate, with a paid license for continued use. |
| [Visual Studio Code](https://privacyratings.com/code-editors/visual-studio-code/) | D (50/100) | United States (Five Eyes) | Microsoft's code editor with built-in Git support, debugging, AI features and an extension marketplace. Built from the MIT-licensed Code - OSS repository, with Microsoft branding and proprietary components. |
| [Zed](https://privacyratings.com/code-editors/zed/) | D (50/100) | United States (Five Eyes) | Code editor written in Rust with GPU-accelerated rendering, real-time collaboration and built-in AI agent features. |
| [Vim](https://privacyratings.com/code-editors/vim/) | D (40/100) | Unknown | Modal text editor for the terminal and GUI, configurable through Vim script and plugins. Distributed as charityware that asks users to donate to a children's charity in Uganda. |
| [Cursor](https://privacyratings.com/code-editors/cursor/) | F (30/100) | United States (Five Eyes) | AI code editor from Anysphere, built on a fork of VS Code, with AI chat, code completion and coding agents. |
| [IntelliJ IDEA](https://privacyratings.com/code-editors/intellij-idea/) | F (25/100) | Czechia | IDE from JetBrains for Java, Kotlin and other JVM languages, with code analysis, refactoring, debugging and AI features. Some features require a paid subscription. |

## Criteria

- **Open source** (weight 3): Is all the source code needed to run the product public?
- **No trackers or telemetry** (weight 3): Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?
- **No ads or data sales** (weight 2): Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?
- **Independent audit** (weight 2): Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?

Source: https://privacyratings.com/code-editors/