head to head · open source
lapce vs rune
lapce has 38,920 GitHub stars, 1,354 forks, 901 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. rune has 1,249 stars, 92 forks, 100 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lapce leads on adoption by 3,016% (38,920 vs 1,249 stars). lapce is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; rune is written in Go under GPL-3.0. lapce has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, rune 7%. rune 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
| lapce | rune | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-09 | 2026-10-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 92 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lapce if
- You weight community size — 39K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick rune if
- You want the rune feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and rune fits your workflow better
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 →
About rune
Rune is a fast, GPU accelerated, full featured IDE and terminal multiplexer for developers who prefer a native application to a browser based editor and want the same environment on every machine they own.
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Frequently asked questions
Is lapce or rune more popular?
lapce has 38,920 GitHub stars and rune has 1,249. lapce has the larger community by that measure.
Are lapce and rune free?
Both are open source. lapce is licensed under Apache-2.0 and rune under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lapce and rune?
lapce is written in Rust and rune in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, lapce or rune?
Choose lapce if you want the larger community (38,920 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose rune if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.