Zed vs Pi: what developers actually say
Based on 880 opinions on Hacker News from developers who discussed these two, most of them first-hand users.
Pi comes out ahead on approval: 84 versus 59 overall, and 80 versus 57 over the last 90 days. Its customization record is the clearest signal in the data, with 150 positive mentions against 4 negative, and it also leads on cost praise (29 versus 5), reliability (25 versus 8), and local privacy (13 versus 1). Zed still draws more UX praise in absolute terms (119 positive mentions versus 36) and more speed praise (62 versus 16), so it remains the better pick for people who want a full graphical editor. Zed's weak spots are reliability (16 positive, 32 negative) and local privacy (6 positive, 10 negative), while Pi's complaints center on dependency bloat, install friction, and security maturity.
Choose Zed if
- Want a full graphical editor with the most UX praise in the data, 119 positive mentions
- Care about speed, where Zed has 62 positive mentions against 16 negative
- Want one app for editing and running agents, as several users describe using it
Choose Pi if
- Want deep customization, with 150 positive mentions against 4 negative
- Need multiple model providers and open-source code, 17 positive mentions and 0 negative
- Want a terminal agent that users picked over Claude Code 54 times