head to head · open source
Kilo vs fresh
Kilo has 27,834 GitHub stars, 3,332 forks, 586 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fresh has 9,394 stars, 372 forks, 369 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Kilo leads on adoption by 196% (27,834 vs 9,394 stars). Kilo is written in TypeScript under MIT; fresh is written in Rust under GPL-3.0. Kilo has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, fresh 4%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Kilo | fresh | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 9.4K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 372 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Kilo if
- You weight community size — 28K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick fresh if
- You want the fresh feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and fresh fits your workflow better
About Kilo
English 简体中文 繁體中文 한국어 Deutsch Español Français Italiano Dansk 日本語 Polski Русский Bosanski العربية Norsk Português (Brasil) ไทย Türkçe Українська বাংলা Ελληνικά Tiếng Việt The open source coding agent for building with AI in VS Code, JetBrains, or the CLI. Kilo Code is an AI coding agent that meets you everywhere you work: VS Code, JetBrains, and the CLI. It's open source with open pricing. You pick from 500+ models, switch between them mid task, and pay the model provider's rate with zero markup. No API keys required to start. Installation Pick where you want to run Kilo. VS Code Install the Kilo Code extension…
About fresh
Fresh A modern, full featured terminal text editor, with zero configuration . Familiar keybindings, mouse support, and IDE level features — no learning curve required. Official Website · Documentation · Discord · Contributing Quick Install: curl fsSL sh Fresh brings the intuitive UX of VS Code and Sublime Text to the terminal. Standard keybindings, full mouse support, menus, and a command palette — everything works the way you'd expect, right out of the box. No modes, no memorizing shortcuts. Built for real world performance: Fresh handles multi gigabyte files with negligible memory overhead and delivers…
read the full fresh overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More IDEs & Code Editors projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the IDEs & Code Editors field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Kilo or fresh more popular?
Kilo has 27,834 GitHub stars and fresh has 9,394. Kilo has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kilo and fresh free?
Both are open source. Kilo is licensed under MIT and fresh under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Kilo and fresh?
Kilo is written in TypeScript and fresh in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Kilo or fresh?
Choose Kilo if you want the larger community (27,834 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose fresh if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.