Vim vs Neovim: what's different, and which to use

Neovim was started in 2014 by Thiago de Arruda, after a patch that would have added multi-threading to Vim was turned down, and it was funded by a public fundraiser that March. Its charter calls it "not a rewrite but a continuation and extension of Vim", with goals that include keeping Vim's character ("fast, versatile, quasi-minimal") and offering a first-class Lua interface as an alternative to Vimscript.

Vim did not stand still. Vim 9.0 (June 2022) introduced Vim9 script, a faster, stricter dialect of Vimscript. Bram Moolenaar, Vim's lead developer for more than 30 years, died in 2023, and Vim 9.1 was dedicated to him; the Vim project has carried on releasing since. Both editors are maintained today, and neither is a drop-in replacement for the other.

This is the difference you feel first. Vim reads ~/.vimrc, written in Vimscript. Since 9.0 you can also write vim9script files, where functions are declared with def and variables with var; the Vim project expects them to run 10 to 100 times faster than legacy script, and says legacy script will keep working.

Neovim reads init.lua or init.vim from its config folder (:echo stdpath('config') shows where), but not both at once. You can still call Vimscript from Lua and Lua from Vimscript, so it is not all-or-nothing. Neovim's charter lists supporting Vim9 script as a non-goal, so a plugin or config written in Vim9 script will not run there.

If you are moving from Vim, Neovim's own help (:h nvim-from-vim) gives three lines for init.vim that load your existing ~/.vimrc:

• set runtimepath^=~/.vim runtimepath+=~/.vim/after
• let &packpath = &runtimepath
• source ~/.vimrc

Most set lines and mappings carry over. A few options were removed in Neovim, so the help suggests guarding those with if !has('nvim').

A language server client. Neovim speaks the Language Server Protocol itself: vim.lsp.config() describes a server and vim.lsp.enable() turns it on, and it comes with default mappings such as K for hover documentation and grn to rename. The servers themselves (for TypeScript, Python, Rust and so on) are separate programs you install. Vim has an lsp mode for its channels, which handles the protocol's encoding, but the client itself comes from a plugin you choose.

Tree-sitter. Neovim includes the Tree-sitter parsing library, which builds a syntax tree of the file. Plugins and your config use it for more precise highlighting, folding and code-aware selections. Vim highlights with its long-standing regex-based syntax files, which Neovim also still ships.

A Lua API and floating windows. Most modern Neovim plugins are written in Lua against Neovim's API, and draw completion menus and pop-ups in floating windows. Vim has its own popup windows for the same job; Neovim removed those in favour of floating windows, which is one reason UI plugins rarely work in both.

Both have :terminal for a shell in a split, and both have jobs and channels for asynchronous work.

Start each editor with no config and they feel different, mostly because Neovim changed defaults that most people set by hand anyway. Neovim's :h vim-differences lists them all; the ones you notice first:

• Search highlights its matches (hlsearch) and jumps as you type (incsearch).
• New lines keep the indent of the line above (autoindent).
• The status line is always shown (laststatus=2) and the mouse works in Normal, Visual and Insert mode (mouse=nvi).
• You can switch away from a changed buffer without saving it first (hidden).
• Filetype detection and syntax highlighting are on, and 'compatible' is always off.
• Undo history and session data (ShaDa, which replaces .viminfo) live in standard folders such as ~/.local/state/nvim.

None of this changes what a key does. dw deletes a word, ci" changes inside quotes and . repeats the last change, in both.

Plugins written in plain Vimscript usually work in both editors. Plugins written in Lua need Neovim, and plugins written in Vim9 script need Vim. Over the last several years much of the new plugin work, especially around language servers, fuzzy finding and Tree-sitter, has been Lua for Neovim, while Vim's ecosystem leans on long-lived Vimscript plugins.

Vim changes slowly and carefully, and a vimrc from years ago generally still works. Neovim moves faster: it adds features and occasionally deprecates or changes APIs between releases, so a Neovim config with many plugins takes some upkeep. Whether that is a cost or the point depends on you.

Modes, motions, operators, counts, text objects, registers, macros, marks, :s and :g are the same in both editors, because Neovim kept Vim's editing model on purpose. A habit like ciw or qa ... q @a works identically, so the choice of editor doesn't change what you have to learn. You can practise the motions in a browser at the course, then set up whichever editor you picked; the Neovim config lesson covers a first init.lua.