When comparing Gruvbox vs Zenburn, the Slant community recommends Gruvbox for most people. In the question“What are the best VIM color-schemes?” Gruvbox is ranked 1st while Zenburn is ranked 11th. The most important reason people chose Gruvbox is:
Three different variants are available, each with different contrasts.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Multiple contrast options
Three different variants are available, each with different contrasts.
Pro Very easy on the eyes
Both the light and dark version have a reddish background for a consistent look when toggling between them.
Pro Have light and dark version
Dark background has brown-yellowish retro colors, light background is yellowish with pastel highlights.
Pro Made ready for multiple text-editors
Ports for Atom, Sublime, TextMate and Emacs and other text editors are available.
For a full list of available ports.
If you are using a Jetbrains IDE.
Pro You can go all day with Gruvbox
Pro It can be customized in detail
Size of the tabs, icons of file types, contrast of the color schemes, accented colors, indentation in the sidebar, sizes of the status bar and dozens more.
Pro Exceptionally easy for your eyes
Pro A battle-tested solution backed by decades of happy use
Pro Low contrast color theme
The low contrast will reduce eyestrain.
Pro Ported to a lot of apps and software
Cons
Con That white is very painful to look at using an F.lux like applications
While it looks quite good for some time, using Night Shift/F.lux applications just makes reading things with Gruvbox quite painful.
Con Quite low in contrast
While the low contrast reduces eye strain, some people may prefer the added legibility of a higher contrast.