Why Do Developers Prefer NeoVim Over Vim?

1. Project Maintenance and Feature Improvements

Vim's development is led by a single maintainer and discussion stays on mailing lists, making the codebase less maintainable. NeoVim was forked to improve extensibility and usability, adding a built‑in terminal, asynchronous execution, and popup windows, which Vim later adopted under community pressure.

2. Code Completion (LSP)

LSP defines how editors communicate with language servers for syntax checking, completion, hints, and type information. NeoVim ships with out‑of‑the‑box LSP support configured via Lua, while Vim requires an external plugin, reducing development and debugging time.

3. Better Plugin Support

Vim has a rich plugin ecosystem but plugins are written in Vimscript, which can be cumbersome for IDE‑like functionality. NeoVim allows plugins to be written in Lua, a more general language, making configuration easier and enabling deeper core extensions.

4. Parallel Startup

NeoVim can start each plugin in parallel, which speeds up editor launch when many plugins need a few seconds to initialize.

5. Embeddable Editor

The more maintainable codebase makes it feasible to embed NeoVim in other applications, for example using it inside VS Code.

6. Configuration File Location

NeoVim follows the XDG base‑directory specification, storing its main configuration file init.nvim in ~/.config/nvim/. Vim traditionally uses ~/.vimrc, which is not under the XDG directory, making backups and migrations harder.

7. Optimizations in NeoVim

NeoVim optimizes commands such as :g/<pattern>/d by avoiding copying deleted lines to the register. An underscore variant :g/<pattern>/d _ skips the copy step entirely, accelerating bulk deletions.

8. Better Out‑of‑the‑Box Defaults

NeoVim enables options like autoindent, a dark background, and hlsearch (highlight all matches) by default, offering a more ready‑to‑use experience for newcomers.

Conclusion

Vim was created to improve the original vi editor, and NeoVim was created to improve Vim. The technical improvements listed above explain why many developers now choose NeoVim over the traditional Vim editor.