Helix is an open-source modal text editor written in Rust that ships with LSP, tree-sitter highlighting, multi-cursor and a fuzzy file picker out of the box. It is the most opinionated, configuration-free modal editor available today.
Helix Editor is a free, open-source modal text editor written in Rust that ships with Language Server Protocol (LSP), tree-sitter highlighting, multiple selections, fuzzy pickers and a debug adapter — all working out of the box with zero config. We rate it 84/100 — the most polished batteries-included terminal editor available in 2026, but its lack of a stable plugin system still keeps it a step behind Neovim for power users.
Helix is a terminal-first modal editor created by Blaž Hrastnik (GitHub handle archseer) and first published on Hacker News on . It is heavily inspired by Kakoune for its selection-then-action editing model and by Neovim for its keyboard-centric, terminal-native ethos. The latest stable release is 25.07.1, shipped on and built by 195 contributors over the cycle.
Where Vim and Neovim demand a config rabbit hole before they feel productive, Helix flips the contract: install one binary, run hx, and you get LSP completions, tree-sitter syntax trees, project-wide search, a file explorer (new in 25.07), bracket pairs and Kakoune-style multi-selection without a single line of config. That trade — less customisation in exchange for a working editor in 30 seconds — is what makes Helix one of the fastest-growing developer tools on GitHub, with over 38,000 stars on the helix-editor/helix repository.
w selects the next word, then d deletes it — you see exactly what will change before you act.tree-house that supports incremental injections — e.g. correctly highlighting Rust inside Markdown inside Rust doc comments.C copies the selection to the next line, s selects every regex match in the current selection.space-f), buffers, symbols, project-wide search, and a new file explorer (space-e) added in 25.07.catppuccin_mocha, dracula, everforest_dark and onedark, all selectable via :theme.On Hacker News the 25.07 announcement sat near the top of the front page for most of the day. The most upvoted comment praised Helix as “the first editor I have not had to fight with on day one” and several long-time Vim users said they had switched their $EDITOR permanently. The recurring complaint, however, is just as consistent: Vim muscle memory does not transfer cleanly because Helix uses object-then-action keybindings (the inverse of Vim), so switchers report stumbling over x deleting a line vs Vim’s character delete.
On Reddit’s r/rust and r/neovim, the praise centres on the zero-config experience and the fact that LSP “just works” for Rust, Go, TypeScript and Python without editing a single TOML file. The criticisms are equally consistent: no plugin system has shipped yet — only an open design discussion — so power users miss the equivalents of fugitive for git, oil for file management and copilot.vim. A few users have written shims like helix-vim to ease the transition.
Helix is fully free and open source under the Mozilla Public License 2.0. There are no paid tiers, no enterprise plan, no telemetry and no signup. Distribution is through pre-built binaries on GitHub Releases, every major package manager (Homebrew, apt, dnf, pacman, scoop, winget, MacPorts) and source builds via cargo install --path helix-term --locked.
| Plan | Price | What’s Included |
|---|---|---|
| Open Source | $0 | Full editor, all features, all platforms. Sponsor optionally on OpenCollective. |
Best for: developers who want a modal editor that works on day one without spending a weekend assembling plugins, SSH-heavy workflows where Electron-based editors are too heavy, and Rust/Go/Python developers who rely heavily on LSP. Helix is also an excellent first modal editor for newcomers — the in-editor keymap helper (?) and selection-first model are far less hostile than vanilla Vim.
Not ideal for: long-time Vim power users with deep .vimrc habits, anyone who depends on niche plugins (Copilot, Magit-style git UIs, telescope extensions), or developers who need GUI features like a tree view sidebar and integrated terminal panes — Helix is terminal-native by design.
Pros:
Cons:
The closest direct competitor is Neovim, which has a vast Lua plugin ecosystem and far more configurability but requires significantly more setup before it feels complete. Kakoune shares Helix’s selection-first model and is more composable by design but lacks built-in LSP and tree-sitter. For developers who prefer a GUI, Zed offers similar Rust-powered speed with a graphical UI and built-in collaboration, while Cursor bundles AI as a first-class citizen on top of VS Code.
Helix is the easiest modal editor to recommend to a developer who wants Vim-like keyboard efficiency without the configuration tax. The 25.07 release, with the tree-house rewrite, file explorer and command-line overhaul, makes it feel like a serious 1.0-grade product despite the calendar-versioning. The missing plugin system keeps it a half-step behind Neovim for users who need fugitive, telescope or Copilot, but for greenfield setups, SSH-heavy workflows and developers tired of plugin breakage every six months, Helix is in our view the best terminal editor of 2026 — hence our 84/100 rating.
space-e), the tree-house tree-sitter rewrite, LSP document colors and a complete command-line parser overhaul.
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