head to head · open source
helix vs re-editor
helix has 46,901 GitHub stars, 4,008 forks, 1,671 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. re-editor has 762 stars, 106 forks, 39 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. helix leads on adoption by 6,055% (46,901 vs 762 stars). helix is written in Rust under MPL-2.0; re-editor is written in Dart under MIT. helix has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, re-editor 14%. re-editor was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (text-editor), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | re-editor | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 762 |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | Dart |
| Last push | 2026-09-29 | 2026-10-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.0K | ⑂ 106 |
| 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 re-editor if
- You want the re-editor feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You evaluated both and re-editor 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 re-editor
Re Editor 中文版本 Re Editor is a powerful lightweight text and code editor widget and a module in the Reqable project. It can be used as a simple text area or to develop a code editor with complex functions. Unlike Flutter's default TextField , Re Editor is specifically tailored for the display and input of multi line text and offers the following features: Two way horizontal and vertical scrolling. Text syntax highlighting. Content collapsing and expanding. Input hints and auto completion. Search and replace. Custom context menu builder. Shortcut keys. Large text display and editing. Line numbers and focus line…
read the full re-editor overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is helix or re-editor more popular?
helix has 46,901 GitHub stars and re-editor has 762. helix has the larger community by that measure.
Are helix and re-editor free?
Both are open source. helix is licensed under MPL-2.0 and re-editor under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between helix and re-editor?
helix is written in Rust and re-editor in Dart. 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 re-editor?
Choose helix if you want the larger community (46,901 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose re-editor if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.