head to head · open source
Neovim vs Kilo
Neovim has 103,312 GitHub stars, 7,395 forks, 1,900 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Kilo has 27,834 stars, 3,332 forks, 586 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Neovim leads on adoption by 271% (103,312 vs 27,834 stars). Neovim is written in Vim Script under a custom or non-standard licence; Kilo is written in TypeScript under MIT. Neovim has attracted 7% 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
| Neovim | Kilo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 103K | ★ 28K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Vim Script | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.4K | ⑂ 3.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Neovim if
- You weight community size — 103K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Vim Script
- 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 Neovim
Documentation Chat Neovim is a project that seeks to aggressively refactor Vim in order to: Simplify maintenance and encourage contributions Split the work between multiple developers Enable [advanced UIs] without modifications to the core Maximize extensibility See the Introduction wiki page and [Roadmap] for more information. Features Modern GUIs API access from any language including C/C++, C , Clojure, D, Elixir, Go, Haskell, Java/Kotlin, JavaScript/Node.js, Julia, Lisp, Lua, Perl, Python, Racket, Ruby, Rust Embedded, scriptable terminal emulator Asynchronous job control Shared data (shada) among multiple…
read the full Neovim overview →
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…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Neovim or Kilo more popular?
Neovim has 103,312 GitHub stars and Kilo has 27,834. Neovim has the larger community by that measure.
Are Neovim and Kilo free?
Both are open source. Neovim has no licence declared in this registry, and Kilo is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Neovim and Kilo?
Neovim is written in Vim Script 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, Neovim or Kilo?
Choose Neovim if you want the larger community (103,312 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Kilo if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.