Products · Product
Neovim
Raised as a usability problem by 117 people on Hacker News over 10 years (2017–2026), in 82 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Hard to replicate custom setup; plugin updates break editor, costing hoursUnreviewed
20172026- UI feels less intuitive; plugin setup feels fragile and hard to fix2025-10-29
- Plugins and binaries break incompatibly after updates, leaving the editor broken for weeks2024-05-16
- Custom setup is hard to replicate and plugin updates break the editor, costing hours of troubleshooting2023-11-05
Setting up a configuration framework is painful and time-consumingUnreviewed
20172026- Setup instructions and config loading fail, so the user can't get Neovim working and gives up2026-08-20
- Neovim becomes very slow and laggy over the remote connection2026-05-13
- Setting up Neovim needs about 1000 lines of config that is hard to trim2025-10-11
Input lag makes the editor too slow to type inUnreviewed
20172026- Configuring keyboard-driven code execution in other editors took hours and still falls short2026-04-17
- Input lag makes the editor too slow to type in2023-03-13
- Typing has noticeable input latency, and the user can't tell which plugin causes it2022-04-15
Plugin setup docs target Vim, making errors hard to diagnoseUnreviewed
20172026- Hard to understand Vim packages and configs; needs debugging to get basic features working2024-02-01
- Gives many errors, some confusing and seemingly nonsensical, when switching from Vim2022-06-28
- Vim settings in .vimrc are ignored, requiring fiddly plugin load-order workarounds2021-08-30
Built-in LSP setup needs three involved Lua pluginsUnreviewed
20172026- Getting a good LSP setup requires many packages and a lot of work2025-09-04
- Setting up built-in LSP needed three involved Lua plugins, making it a nightmare to configure2025-05-20
- Setup requires learning Lua, config files, and many plugins to work together2024-12-28
Config setup is cumbersome when just trying Neovim outUnreviewed
20172026- Setup is fragile and too cumbersome to change on the fly2026-07-30
- Needs a lot of configuration before it can be used to start writing code2025-01-25
- Hard to configure; needs many dependencies and hours of docs to get working2023-07-17
Lua config needs vim.cmd wrapping, losing syntax highlighting for autocmdsUnreviewed
20172026- Lua and vimscript configs differ, and plugins lack default config snippets2023-04-07
- Setup is convoluted and docs require knowing VimScript and Lua2023-02-19
- Lua config can't natively handle autocmds or plugin management, forcing awkward vim.cmd wrapping2022-09-30
Terminal rendering gives poor font handling and quirksUnreviewed
20172026- Terminal rendering gives worse font handling and quirks, making the editor a poor experience2025-10-18
- Flashy plugin visuals are distracting and non-ASCII characters break serial terminals2025-01-24
- Language server features make the terminal editor visually noisy and hard to use2022-10-14
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Undo history files from older versions are silently deleted by newer versions, losing edit history2026-09-27
- Setup instructions and config loading fail, so the user can't get Neovim working and gives up2026-08-20
- Setup is fragile and too cumbersome to change on the fly2026-07-30
- Setup breaks regularly after upgrades, requiring troubleshooting mid-work2026-06-03
- Neovim becomes very slow and laggy over the remote connection2026-05-13
- Plain-text CSV editing makes it hard to set commas and navigate between empty cells2026-04-27
- Configuring keyboard-driven code execution in other editors took hours and still falls short2026-04-17
- Changing default mappings breaks users' muscle-memory interaction with the editor2026-03-31
- Upgrading requires switching to a different branch; old branch unsupported on 0.122026-03-30
- Config settings are spread across many files and poorly documented, hard to discover2026-03-29
- Neovim defaults are awful, and quickfix and loclist miss the mark for pickers2026-03-07
- Highlighted positions use only color, so Braille display users can't track them; initial plugin menu unusable2025-11-12
- UI feels less intuitive; plugin setup feels fragile and hard to fix2025-10-29
- Terminal rendering gives worse font handling and quirks, making the editor a poor experience2025-10-18
- Setting up Neovim needs about 1000 lines of config that is hard to trim2025-10-11
- Exiting terminal mode needs awkward C-\ C-n key chord users must remap2025-09-23
- Can't smoothly switch modes and buffers without consulting documentation2025-09-12
- Getting started requires installing a plugin manager first, adding friction for new users2025-09-05
- Getting a good LSP setup requires many packages and a lot of work2025-09-04
- Felt busy and cluttered, and the user couldn't work out how to reach normal mode2025-09-04
- Keybindings often don't stick, so the user can't remember commands2025-08-05
- Changing behavior requires editing files, reloading the editor, losing state2025-07-11
- Selenized theme fails to load as main theme; some colors need a delayed re-highlight2025-05-22
- Setting up built-in LSP needed three involved Lua plugins, making it a nightmare to configure2025-05-20
- Took hours of configuration and left the user less productive2025-02-08
- Advertised plugins like zen mode and git integration don't work without tinkering2025-02-05
- Needs a lot of configuration before it can be used to start writing code2025-01-25
- Flashy plugin visuals are distracting and non-ASCII characters break serial terminals2025-01-24
- Updates turn on a default option that breaks mouse selection, requiring a search to disable it2025-01-24
- Many distracting defaults; finding the option or plugin to disable them takes time2025-01-24
- Hard to associate file extensions with nvim-qt on Windows, needing registry debugging2025-01-24
- Can't auto-import symbols or create expansion shortcuts like sout for Java2024-12-29
- Debugger setup takes too much friction to configure, so the user reverts to IntelliJ2024-12-28
- Import ordering differs from IntelliJ and no fix has been found2024-12-28
- Setup requires learning Lua, config files, and many plugins to work together2024-12-28
- Telescope.nvim's API is harder to understand and use than VS Code's2024-08-03
- Neovim's columns don't adjust when the window is resized, and bugs go ignored2024-07-11
- Switching Python virtual environments and setting up the debugger (DAP) is a hassle2024-06-29
- Constant reverse engineering needed to get fine-grained control over behavior2024-06-14
- Copying yanked text to the terminal is harder than in Vim2024-05-16
- Plugins and binaries break incompatibly after updates, leaving the editor broken for weeks2024-05-16
- Ctrl-W window commands don't work with terminal windows, blocking switching2024-03-06
- Snippet feature is practically unusable in Neovim because Python interop is too slow2024-02-05
- Vim keybindings don't work correctly or smoothly for the commenter2024-02-01
- Default keybindings are ergonomically awful, causing finger strain for typing2024-02-01
- Unclear which of many folders hold config, and how settings are declared2024-02-01
- Hard to understand Vim packages and configs; needs debugging to get basic features working2024-02-01
- Unpredictable results when closing tabs or panes, leaving empty tabs and confusing layouts2023-12-21
- Auto-formats .zig files on every save and shows compiler errors without asking2023-12-06
- Every plugin requires learning new, unintuitive shortcuts for basic features2023-11-14