Vim Reviews & Product Details

Vim is a highly configurable and efficient text editor, renowned for its versatility and power. As an enhanced version of the traditional 'vi' editor, Vim offers a comprehensive feature set that caters to a wide range of text editing needs, from simple note-taking to complex programming tasks. Its modal design, which separates editing tasks into distinct modes, allows users to perform actions swiftly and with precision. While Vim has a steeper learning curve compared to conventional editors, it rewards users with unparalleled efficiency and control once mastered. Key Features and Functionality: - Modal Editing: Vim operates in different modes—such as Normal, Insert, and Visual—each tailored for specific tasks, enabling efficient text manipulation. - Extensive Customization: Users can tailor Vim to their preferences through a vast array of plugins and scripts, enhancing functionality and adapting the editor to various workflows. - Syntax Highlighting: Vim supports syntax highlighting for numerous programming languages, aiding in code readability and reducing errors. - Multi-File and Multi-Window Support: Users can edit multiple files simultaneously, utilizing split windows and tabs to manage complex projects effectively. - Integrated Help System: Vim includes a comprehensive help system, providing users with immediate access to documentation and guidance. - Cross-Platform Availability: Vim is available on various operating systems, including Unix, Linux, Windows, and macOS, ensuring a consistent editing experience across platforms. Primary Value and User Solutions: Vim addresses the need for a powerful and efficient text editing tool that can handle a wide range of tasks, from simple text editing to complex programming. Its modal design and extensive customization options allow users to tailor the editor to their specific workflows, enhancing productivity and reducing the time spent on repetitive tasks. By supporting multiple programming languages and offering features like syntax highlighting and multi-file editing, Vim serves as a versatile tool for developers and writers alike. Its cross-platform availability ensures that users have a consistent and reliable editing environment, regardless of the operating system they use.

Seller

Vim

Discussions

Vim Community

Value at a Glance

Averages based on real user reviews.

Time to Implement

1 month

Return on Investment

10 months

View More Pricing Information

Top-Rated Alternatives

View All Alternatives

Vim Reviews (269)

View 1 Video Reviews

G2 reviews are authentic and verified.

Here's how.

Jane A.

Python Developer

Information Technology and Services

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

9/25/2025

""It's versatile,Lightweight,Innovative for TOP-NOTCH text editing and modification experience""

4.5/5

What do you like best about Vim?

I really love it versatility for editing text and doing modification for my files and web development applications pages. It stable with fast loading. I like it's support for vast number of plugins for boosting the functionality. Great for it's continuous development making is very innovative and accommodate all programming languages syntax. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Vim?

The interface to say the truth is a bit sluggish, I wish they work on it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Vikas V.

Software Consultant

Computer & Network Security

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

8/9/2025

"Most light weight editor for everyday editing"

3.5/5

What do you like best about Vim?

It can edit large files without breaking a sweat. It has a great repository of plugins available to use for various needs. Clutter free and clean user interface. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Vim?

Commands would have to be remembered. GUI is limited to none. Works well in mac and Linux but windows support is limited. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

prachi g.

Full Stack Lead

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

12/17/2025

"Seamless Integration and User-Friendly Experience"

5/5

What do you like best about Vim?

The integration features and overall ease of use make this product very user-friendly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Vim?

The application sometimes hangs when there is an overload from managing multiple repositories at once. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

k l.

Edge Security

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

10/31/2024

"Vim: Old but gold"

3/5

What do you like best about Vim?

The same with neovim, I really like the extensible scripting language and the large ecosystem that can be used / repurposed for your needs.

It's not the easiest editor to pick up and use. But it's the editor that often encourages workflow and productivity to happen when you're writing code on a daily basis. The features at your disposable are second to none and, while always imitated, very few editors can match it's prowess of the king.

These are just the few features I'm leveraging to make myself productive:

- various modes: visual / execute / normal

- text motions

- keybindings

- buffers

- plugins

- registers

- number increments

- search / replace

- marks

- macros

- vim script

- plugin

Never mind that I haven't even fully utilize the following:

- sessions

- folds

- netrw (windows)

- splits

- tabs

- global buffer search / replace

- tags

- remote edit

- ... etc Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Vim?

Vim's development, while ground breaking at the time, has grown stagnant. The custom scripting language should have been offloaded to a more well thoughtout language such as lua (though lua has it's own problems) so the editor can concentrate on pushing the editor to the next level (I can't even imaginedwhat awesomeness that would be). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Pratik S.

Research Assistant

Computer & Network Security

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5/6/2024

"One of the best text editor"

5/5

What do you like best about Vim?

The funcutionality offered by like searching, replacing particular strings and many more. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Vim?

Vim is not available by default in many light weight linux distributions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Vim solving and how is that benefiting you?

Its modal editing lends itself to lightning fast text entry, and there is a nearly infinite potential growth curve for how its various commands and shortcuts can be efficiently brought to bear in navigating and moving text around.

Through the years, various extension technologies have been added to Vi (a-la Vim) that enable it to be extended in various ways, but in my personal hard wrought experience, there are limits as to how far you can push that extension before the both the editing paradigm and the mechanics begin to creak and groan under the weight of what you're trying to accomplish.

For instance, the straw that broke the camel's back for me was trying to get IDE like method and member auto-completion and refactoring into the editor. There are various solutions for this in Vim, but they either just plain didn't work, or if they did de-stabilized my Vim installation because they required the installation of C shared libraries that were a pain to build and install. There's nothing quite like having your editor dump core in the middle of a critical editing session to make you reconsider your choice of tools. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Nir L.

VP R&D

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

3/17/2024

"A very strong editor, but with a very steep learning curve"

3.5/5

What do you like best about Vim?

I have been using Vim as my editor of choice for the better part of 25 years now. It has many very useful features and is, once you know how to use it, a convenient tool for basic editing. Since it's available out-of-the-box on most Unix and Linux-based systems (including MacOS) it provides much-needed consistency when working on multiple systems, and allows me to do basic and advanced editing everywhere.

Its powerful editing commands include regular-expression-based search-and-replace, quick undo and redo commands, copy/cut/paste commands, and many others. I also love the ability to configure defaults in a .vimrc file so I can save my preferences between sessions, and automatic syntax highlighting is also a personal favorite.

But, without question, the best feature of Vim is its ability to handle ridiculously large files without problem. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Vim?

Ok, yes, it's very complicated to learn. You have to understand how that editor functions and change the state of mind that you have in simpler, more modern, visual editors. The help system is not very helpful, and you can find yourself sometimes googling 'how to remove line numbers in Vim' because you simply cannot remember if it's :set numbers or :set linenumbers. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Vim solving and how is that benefiting you?

I am using Vim to edit all types on files on console based systems, that much is obvious. But it is also very useful for opening, editing, and searching very large files on my desktop. It has a very powerful search and replace engine that is both simple and limitless (again, once you learn how to use it). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Vijay P.

Software Engineer

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

4/3/2024

"Screen-based Text Editor Program - Vim"

4.5/5

What do you like best about Vim?

Vim is a free and open source text editor. It allows us to make changes to the any kind of text in a very efficient way. It is commonly used in UNIX systems and in Apple OS Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Vim?

Vim is time consuming when compared to other text editor like Sublime, Notepad++. It has many shortcuts key associated with keyboard difficult to remember them all. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Rajendra K.

Site Reliability Engineer

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

11/11/2023

"Best tool for Creating/Editing files in CLI"

4.5/5

What do you like best about Vim?

Working with Vim makes you an excellent developer, as it is widely used in most of the organizations to work on servers. It is very efficient with very limited resource utilization and high performance and provides you the functionality to automate. In the long run, everyone finds it very helpful for their productivity. It is especially useful for people working on servers through CLI and who need to use it frequently. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Vim?

For new users, working with Vim is a complex task with learning curve and especially with multiple commands to remember, and in terms of customization, it is not that suitable compared to other alternatives. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Anirudh S.

Web Developer

Computer Software

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

8/30/2023

"Good for editing files on a VPS Server"

4/5

What do you like best about Vim?

This one is the best code editor in linux bases hosting server. It has syntax highligthing which is easier to use compared to Nano. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Vim?

It's just a terminal based (CLI) code editor but overall good for web servers. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

ARYAN S.

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5/3/2023

"Vim too complex or worth the trouble"

3/5

What do you like best about Vim?

The thing I like the most about Vim is the long list of text manipulation options, which do have a learning curve but are of great help once you get the hang of it Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Vim?

Vim is a complex tool by today's standards that prefer a WYSIWYG approach to text editing, Vim has a steep learning curve that may see people quit learning how to use it in the initial stage Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.