Check out evil mode [0] which brings vim keybindings/modes into Emacs, so you will have easier time checking out emacs and making your own opinion. I still use both, vim for quick edits/on the systems where I don't have an emacs config.
For me the reason to prefer Emacs would be its extensibility and ability to modify pretty much any behaviour. I'm no fan of elisp, but it's much more reasonable than vimscript.
[0] https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil#readme
In Emfy: Emacs for You – Quickly set up vanilla Emacs for editingemacs-evil
evil
Emacs Lisp2017–2026
emacs-evil / evil
evil
The extensible vi layer for Emacs.
39Distinct people
46Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
3.9KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
The extensible vi layer for Emacs.
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
> What both Emacs and Vim have in common is an intimidating learning curve. You can't just dip your toe in. Another thing that Emacs and Vim have in common is Vim…
nequo used a recommendation phrase. One indexed comment matches. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- doomemacs/core · linked in 2 of the same discussions
- meow-edit/meow · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 9:02:44 AM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year46 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2017-04-15 22:23:13 UTC to 2026-07-30 17:45:40 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 10 | 0 | 10 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 12 | 1 | 11 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
Evil is an extensible vi layer
for Emacs. It emulates the main features
of Vim, and provides facilities for writing custom
extensions. Also see our page on EmacsWiki.
Installation
See the
official documentation
for installation instructions. We recommend using package.el.
As a quickstart, you can add the following code to your Emacs init
file.
;; Set up package.el to work with MELPA
(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives
'("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/"))
(package-initialize)
(package-refresh-contents)
;; Download Evil
(unless (package-installed-p 'evil)
(package-install 'evil))
;; Enable Evil
(require 'evil)
(evil-mode 1)
Dependencies
Evil requires Emacs 24.1 or later.
Evil requires any of the following for C-r:
undo-redo from Emacs 28
The undo-tree package (available via GNU ELPA)
The undo-fu package (available via MELPA and NonGNU ELPA)
For the motions g; g, and for the last-change-register ., Evil
requires the goto-chg.el
package (available via MELPA and NonGNU ELPA), which provides the
functions goto-last-change and goto-last-change-reverse.
For Emacs 24.1 and 24.2 Evil also requires
cl-lib.
Documentation
The latest version of the documentation is readable online
here. It is also
available as
PDF and
as EPUB.
Mailing list
Evil is discussed at the
gmane.emacs.vim-emulation
mailing list.
IRC
Visit us on irc.libera.chat #evil-mode.
Contribution
See
CONTRIBUTING.md
for guidelines for issues and pull requests.
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
4 sourcesWell yeah, emacs users are elite :)
If you really prefer the vi syntax, there is even an "evil mode" for emacs - https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil
In Free Stuff for DevelopersSpacemacs uses “Evil mode”[1], which is available just as a regular (MELPA) package. I started with Vim and so I’ve always used evil. “Vanilla” emacs, spacemacs, now doom.
[1] https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil
In Emacs 27.2Compared to many I am a relatively new emacs user, back when I began programming I let myself get intimidated by the scary stories told about Emacs and Vim configuration. Turns out a huge emacs configuration is not needed, in fact I notice my emacs config actually started to become smaller over the recent times. It's hard to express how much I value emacs now and the only regret I have is that I did not give it a chance earlier when I still exclusively used "modern" editors and IDEs.
Another aspect I see rarely mentioned is the emacs evil[1], it basicelly provides a full vi layer, it's much more than your average "vi keybindings" plugin.
Emacs vs Vim? Not a question I have to give any thought when I can use both and switch between them without much effort.
[1]: https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil
In The values of Emacs, the Neovim revolution, and the VSCode gorilla