The Java Extension Pack extension contains the core Java IDE functionality for VS Code. Snyk also found that every second developer uses more than one IDE, and every fourth developer uses four or more IDEs. Both reports allowed for multiple answers to this question. The Snyk JVM Ecosystem Report 2021 (over 2,000 responses in February - March 2021) pegged VS Code’s market share at 23%, IntelliJ IDEA at 72%, and Eclipse at 25%.

The JRebel 2021 Java Technology Report (876 responses in August - November 2020) gave VS Code a 27% market share, IntelliJ IDEA 65%, and Eclipse IDE 48%. Two prominent surveys report Java IDE market share. There are approximately 8 million Java developers. Microsoft claimed 14 million users for VS Code last February, up from 9 million in 2020 and 2.6 million at the end of 2017.

VS Code is a member of Microsoft’s Visual Studio IDE family, together with Visual Studio for Windows and Visual Studio for Mac. New welcome and configuration screens ease project set-up, new project and hierarchy views make code navigation easier, quality-of-life improvements save coding time, and the Spring Framework and Microsoft’s Azure cloud service are now better integrated. According to surveys, one out of four Java developers uses Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Microsoft’s free, cross-platform IDE that has recently become a more fully-fledged Java IDE.

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