head to head · open source
lapce vs tinyfilemanager
lapce has 38,860 GitHub stars, 1,333 forks, 901 open issues and last shipped today. tinyfilemanager has 5,980 stars, 1,813 forks, 308 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. lapce leads on adoption by 550% (38,860 vs 5,980 stars). lapce is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; tinyfilemanager is written in PHP under GPL-3.0. lapce has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, tinyfilemanager 30%. lapce was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (code-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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| lapce | tinyfilemanager | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 6.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-07-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| 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 tinyfilemanager if
- You want the tinyfilemanager feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and tinyfilemanager 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 tinyfilemanager
Tiny File Manager is a single file, zero configuration PHP web application that gives you a browser based file manager, uploader, archive tool and code editor from one tinyfilemanager.php script dropped into any web directory.
read the full tinyfilemanager overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Frameworks & Platforms projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Frameworks & Platforms field.
Frequently asked questions
Is lapce or tinyfilemanager more popular?
lapce has 38,860 GitHub stars and tinyfilemanager has 5,980. lapce has the larger community by that measure.
Are lapce and tinyfilemanager free?
Both are open source. lapce is licensed under Apache-2.0 and tinyfilemanager under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lapce and tinyfilemanager?
lapce is written in Rust and tinyfilemanager in PHP. 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 tinyfilemanager?
Choose lapce if you want the larger community (38,860 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose tinyfilemanager if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.