head to head · open source
rea vs lapce
rea has 77,033 GitHub stars, 16,456 forks, 70 open issues and last shipped today. lapce has 38,904 stars, 1,347 forks, 901 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. rea leads on adoption by 98% (77,033 vs 38,904 stars). rea is written in TypeScript under MIT; lapce is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. rea has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, lapce 3%. rea was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (developer-tools), 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
| rea | lapce | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 39K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 16K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rea if
- You weight community size — 77K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick lapce if
- You want the lapce feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and lapce fits your workflow better
About rea
REA is an open source MCP server and CLI that lets AI coding agents — and your terminal — reverse engineer native binaries, JavaScript and Electron apps, .NET assemblies, and websites, with evidence attached to every conclusion.
About lapce
Lapce is an Apache 2.0 licensed, native graphical code editor written in pure Rust for developers who want fast text editing, built in language intelligence, Vim style modal editing, and remote development support inside one application rather than assembled from a base editor plus a stack of extensions.
read the full lapce overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rea or lapce more popular?
rea has 77,033 GitHub stars and lapce has 38,904. rea has the larger community by that measure.
Are rea and lapce free?
Both are open source. rea is licensed under MIT and lapce under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rea and lapce?
rea is written in TypeScript and lapce 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, rea or lapce?
Choose rea if you want the larger community (77,033 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose lapce if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.