Best VS Code Extensions for Developers 2026

Essential Extensions

1. Prettier - Code Formatter

Automatically format code on save. Supports JavaScript, TypeScript, CSS, HTML, JSON.

2. ESLint

JavaScript linter. Catches errors and enforces code style.

3. GitLens

Supercharge Git. Blame annotations, repository insights, powerful search.

4. Live Server

Local development server with live reload. Perfect for HTML/CSS/JS.

5. Auto Rename Tag

Automatically rename paired HTML/XML tags.

Language-Specific

• Python: Pylance, Python Extension Pack
• JavaScript: JavaScript (ES6) code snippets
• React: ES7+ React/Redux/React-Native snippets
• Vue: Volar
• Docker: Docker extension

Productivity Extensions

• Path Intellisense: Auto-complete file paths
• Bracket Pair Colorizer: Color matching brackets
• TODO Highlight: Highlight TODOs in code
• Better Comments: Styled code comments