head to head · open source
helix vs CodeEdit
helix has 46,772 GitHub stars, 4,011 forks, 1,671 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. CodeEdit has 23,104 stars, 1,195 forks, 213 open issues and last shipped 17 days ago. helix leads on adoption by 102% (46,772 vs 23,104 stars). helix is written in Rust under MPL-2.0; CodeEdit is written in Swift under MIT. helix has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, CodeEdit 5%. CodeEdit 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
| helix | CodeEdit | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 23K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-29 | 2026-10-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.0K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick helix if
- You weight community size — 47K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick CodeEdit if
- You want the CodeEdit feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and CodeEdit fits your workflow better
About helix
A Kakoune / Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust. The editing model is very heavily based on Kakoune; during development I found myself agreeing with most of Kakoune's design decisions. For more information, see the website or documentation. All shortcuts/keymaps can be found in the documentation on the website. Troubleshooting Features Vim like modal editing Multiple selections Built in language server support Smart, incremental syntax highlighting and code editing via tree sitter Although it's primarily a terminal based editor, I am interested in exploring a custom renderer (similar to Emacs) using wgpu…
read the full helix overview →
About CodeEdit
CodeEdit for macOS CodeEdit is a code editor built by the community, for the community, written entirely and unapologetically for macOS. Features include syntax highlighting, code completion, project find and replace, snippets, terminal, task running, debugging, git integration, code review, extensions, and more. [!IMPORTANT] CodeEdit is currently in development and not yet recommended for production use, however you can take part in shaping it's future by test driving pre release versions and submitting an issue to let us know what you think. Table of Contents Motivation Mission Community Activity Contributing…
read the full CodeEdit overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is helix or CodeEdit more popular?
helix has 46,772 GitHub stars and CodeEdit has 23,104. helix has the larger community by that measure.
Are helix and CodeEdit free?
Both are open source. helix is licensed under MPL-2.0 and CodeEdit under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between helix and CodeEdit?
helix is written in Rust and CodeEdit in Swift. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, helix or CodeEdit?
Choose helix if you want the larger community (46,772 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose CodeEdit if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.