The Top 5 Free Visual Studio Code Extensions for Developers in 2025

One significant benefit of Visual Studio Code is its extensibility, which enables developers to customize their workspace for optimal productivity. Five crucial free extensions that will greatly increase your productivity and optimize your coding workflow in 2025 are highlighted in this post.

1. Prettier: Consistent Code Formatting with Minimal Work

Prettier saves you time and guarantees a consistent appearance across all of your projects by automatically formatting your code to follow consistent guidelines. Many languages, including JavaScript, TypeScript, and CSS, are supported. Prettier makes code easier to read and reduces noise in code reviews by doing away with manual formatting, so you can concentrate on the logic. For cleaner, easier-to-maintain code, just install it and set it up to format on save or manually trigger it.

2. GitLens: In-Depth Git Integration for Improved Knowledge

GitLens enhances VS Code's integrated Git features by offering perceptive annotations right within your code. Visually compare branches, easily examine commit history, see who wrote each line, and better comprehend the evolution of your codebase. This deep integration gives you a thorough understanding of your project's version control, enhances teamwork, and makes debugging easier by identifying when changes were made.

3. REST Client: Simplified VS Code API Testing

For simple API testing, do not switch to different tools. You can create and send HTTP requests right within your Visual Studio Code environment with REST Client. Create your API calls in.http files with an easy-to-understand syntax, then see the results right away. Debugging API integrations, rapidly testing endpoints, and comprehending backend communication all benefit greatly from this.For front-end and back-end developers who regularly work with APIs, it streamlines the development process.

4. Live Server: Real-time Web Development Previews

A real-time feedback loop is offered by Live Server for front-end development. When you save changes to your HTML, CSS, or JavaScript files, this extension starts a local development server and automatically refreshes your browser. Your development process is accelerated when you see your code come to life instantly. This eliminates the need for manual refreshes and enables quick iterations and visual confirmation of your changes. For anyone creating web interfaces, it is a necessary tool.

5. GitHub Copilot or TabNine: AI-Powered Intelligent Code Completion

Increase the speed of your coding by utilizing artificial intelligence. As you type, intelligent code suggestions are provided by TabNine (which offers both free and paid options) and GitHub Copilot (which may require payment after a trial). These extensions reduce typing, minimize errors, and even introduce you to new coding patterns by learning from large amounts of code to predict and suggest your next lines. They serve as a useful AI assistant in your editor by offering context-aware autocompletion, which speeds up and improves the efficiency of your code writing.

Final Thoughts: Improve Your Experience with VS Code

Any developer's toolkit in 2025 would benefit greatly from these five free Visual Studio Code extensions. They make coding more efficient and pleasurable by addressing important components of the development workflow, such as code formatting, version control comprehension, API testing, live previews, and intelligent code completion. Examine these add-ons to see how they can improve your Visual Studio Code configuration. Which VS Code extensions are your favorites?