Zed vs Aider: what developers actually say

Zed comes out ahead on evidence volume: 457 opinions from 378 authors against Aider's 34 opinions from 39 authors. Approval is effectively tied at 59% for Zed and 60% for Aider, but Aider has no 90-day figure and a sample small enough that one comment moves the rate several points. Zed's strengths are UX (119 positive, 56 negative) and speed (62 positive, 16 negative), while its weak spot is reliability (16 positive, 32 negative). Aider's strongest aspect is code quality (5 positive, 1 negative), with little data on anything else. Pick Aider when the terminal is the workflow and local data handling or small reviewable commits matter more than editor features; pick Zed when you want an editor with agent orchestration and the UX is the main draw.