head to head · open source
helix vs Kilo
helix has 46,270 GitHub stars, 3,758 forks, 1,671 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Kilo has 27,355 stars, 3,174 forks, 586 open issues and last shipped yesterday. helix leads on adoption by 69% (46,270 vs 27,355 stars). helix is written in Rust under MPL-2.0; Kilo is written in TypeScript under MIT. helix has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Kilo 12%. Kilo 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 | Kilo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 27K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 3.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick helix if
- You weight community size — 46K 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 Kilo if
- You want the Kilo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Kilo fits your workflow better
About helix
Helix is a post modern modal text editor written in Rust that brings the selection first Kakoune editing model to the terminal, aimed at developers who want Vim style modal editing with language tooling built into the editor rather than assembled from a plugin stack.
read the full helix overview →
About Kilo
Kilo is an open source AI coding agent platform that integrates into VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, the CLI, and cloud environments. It enables developers to build, ship, and iterate faster by acting as an autonomous or semi autonomous coding assistant across their entire workflow. Built in TypeScript and licensed under MIT, it supports 500+ models—including GPT 5.5, Claude Opus 4.7, Claude Sonnet 4.6, and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview—without vendor lock in or markup.
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Frequently asked questions
Is helix or Kilo more popular?
helix has 46,270 GitHub stars and Kilo has 27,355. helix has the larger community by that measure.
Are helix and Kilo free?
Both are open source. helix is licensed under MPL-2.0 and Kilo under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between helix and Kilo?
helix is written in Rust and Kilo in TypeScript. 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 Kilo?
Choose helix if you want the larger community (46,270 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose Kilo if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.