head to head · open source
Buzz vs SubEthaEdit
Buzz has 36,686 GitHub stars, 4,869 forks, 3,556 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SubEthaEdit has 1,434 stars, 116 forks, 93 open issues and last shipped 12 months ago. Buzz leads on adoption by 2,458% (36,686 vs 1,434 stars). Buzz is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; SubEthaEdit is written in Objective-C under MIT. Buzz has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, SubEthaEdit 8%. Buzz was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Buzz | SubEthaEdit | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | Objective-C |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2025-11-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.9K | ⑂ 116 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Buzz if
- You weight community size — 37K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick SubEthaEdit if
- You want the SubEthaEdit feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Objective-C
- You evaluated both and SubEthaEdit fits your workflow better
About Buzz
Buzz 🐝 A workspace where humans and agents build together, on a relay you own. Vision · Sovereign · Forge · Agents · Architecture · Releasing · Apache 2.0 People and agents building together in the same room. What is this, really? Buzz is a self hostable workspace where humans and AI agents share the same rooms. A Buzz community is the workspace a user reaches by URL. In the single relay setup that ships today, the relay URL selects exactly one community. A hosted operator can serve many communities behind many domains or subdomains, but the client facing rule stays the same: the URL is authoritative for the…
About SubEthaEdit
SubEthaEdit General purpose plain text editor for macOS. Widely known for its live collaboration feature. github.com/subethaedit/SubEthaEdit is the main development repository. subethaedit.net is the base for the official releases in and out of the app store. Getting Started These instructions will get you a copy of the project up and running on your local machine for development and testing purposes. Prerequisites Development is done on most recent macOS and you are expected to have a apple developer account. Clone the repo, and switch to the develop branch Initialise the submodules by Edit the…
read the full SubEthaEdit overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Buzz or SubEthaEdit more popular?
Buzz has 36,686 GitHub stars and SubEthaEdit has 1,434. Buzz has the larger community by that measure.
Are Buzz and SubEthaEdit free?
Both are open source. Buzz is licensed under Apache-2.0 and SubEthaEdit under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Buzz and SubEthaEdit?
Buzz is written in Rust and SubEthaEdit in Objective-C. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Buzz or SubEthaEdit?
Choose Buzz if you want the larger community (36,686 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose SubEthaEdit if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.