head to head · open source
Kilo vs react-ace
Kilo has 27,369 GitHub stars, 3,178 forks, 586 open issues and last shipped yesterday. react-ace has 4,206 stars, 598 forks, 217 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Kilo leads on adoption by 551% (27,369 vs 4,206 stars). Kilo is written in TypeScript under MIT; react-ace is written in TypeScript under MIT. Kilo has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, react-ace 14%. 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
| Kilo | react-ace | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 4.2K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 598 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Kilo if
- You weight community size — 27K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick react-ace if
- You want the react-ace feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and react-ace fits your workflow better
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.
About react-ace
React Ace is a set of React components that wrap the Ace code editor, published on npm under the MIT licence for developers who need an editable code surface inside a React application.
read the full react-ace overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Kilo or react-ace more popular?
Kilo has 27,369 GitHub stars and react-ace has 4,206. Kilo has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kilo and react-ace free?
Both are open source. Kilo is licensed under MIT and react-ace under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Kilo and react-ace?
Kilo is written in TypeScript and react-ace 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, Kilo or react-ace?
Choose Kilo if you want the larger community (27,369 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose react-ace if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.