My Favorite VSCode Plugins Of 2025

Richard Lewis

Yonce Theme

Back in 2019 I wrote a post about my favorite VS Code plugins and here we are in 2025 and I’m still using it every single day. At this point VS Code has become my main IDE for both work and home projects. I still run Visual Studio from time to time, but VS Code has really become the Swiss Army knife for just about everything i run it for work task and home side projects and if i’m traveling i run it on my iPad via vscode.dev.

According to the 2025 Stack Overflow Developer survey VS Code remains the peoples champ with 76% of developers using it. No surprise there. What makes it so good is still the same reason I switched back then—clean design, easy customization, and an ecosystem of plugins for just about every task you can imagine.

So here’s my 2025 list of extensions I’m using day-to-day:

  1. GitHub Copilot – This has basically become the new autocomplete. It feels like magic sometimes when it suggests exactly what I was about to type. I love showing people the power of this tool and when i really want to flex i show them Agent mode.

  2. GitHub Copilot Chat – If Copilot is autocomplete, Chat is like having a pair programmer sitting next to you. Being able to ask questions about your own codebase right inside VS Code is a game-changer.

  3. Azure Resources – I use Azure daily, and this extension makes it super simple to browse and manage resources without leaving my IDE. Perfect for when I just need to check on a resource quickly.

  4. HashiCorp Terraform – Infrastructure as code is second nature to me now, and this plugin makes working with Terraform plans smooth. Syntax highlighting, autocomplete, and validation all right in VS Code.

  5. Prettier - Code formatter – Still one of the must-haves for keeping code formatting consistent across projects. Save and forget.

  6. Prettify JSON – I’m constantly working with JSON files, and this plugin makes them actually readable with a quick prettify.

  7. Yonce Theme – Yep, still rocking Yonce after all these years. I switch themes from time to time, but this one always feels like home base.

  8. SQL Database Projects – Great for managing database schemas and versioning SQL projects. It’s nice having the full project-based workflow inside VS Code now. This replace my need for Azure Data Studio which replaced my need for SQL Server Management Studio.

  9. markdownlint – Since I write a lot of markdown (including this post), this helps keep things clean and consistent.

  10. Hugo Language and Syntax Support – Given that my blog runs on Hugo, this one is essential. Syntax highlighting for shortcodes and front matter makes editing so much easier.

That’s my current lineup. It’s funny comparing this to my 2019 list has some overlap, but overall it’s a completely different set of tools now. Goes to show how much both my workflow and the ecosystem have evolved in just a few years.