head to head · open source
lite-xl vs codejar
lite-xl has 6,510 GitHub stars, 328 forks, 330 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. codejar has 1,988 stars, 126 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 1.1 years ago. lite-xl leads on adoption by 227% (6,510 vs 1,988 stars). lite-xl is written in Lua under MIT; codejar is written in TypeScript under MIT. lite-xl has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, codejar 6%. lite-xl 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.
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Side by side
| lite-xl | codejar | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.5K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Lua | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2025-10-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 328 | ⑂ 126 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lite-xl if
- You weight community size — 6.5K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick codejar if
- You want the codejar feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and codejar fits your workflow better
About lite-xl
Lite XL [![CI]]( [![Discord Badge Image]]( ![screenshot dark] A lightweight text editor written in Lua, adapted from [lite]. [Get Lite XL] — Download for Windows, Linux and Mac OS. [Get plugins] — Add additional functionality, adapted for Lite XL. [Get color themes] — Add additional colors themes. Please refer to our [website] for the user and developer documentation, including [build] instructions details. A quick build guide is described below. Lite XL has support for high DPI display on Windows and Linux and, since 1.16.7 release, it supports retina displays on macOS. Please note that Lite XL is compatible…
read the full lite-xl overview →
About codejar
CodeJar – an embeddable code editor for the browser Features Lightweight ( 2.45 kB only) No dependencies Preserves indentation on a new line Adds closing brackets, quotes Indents line with the Tab key Supports undo / redo Getting Started Install CodeJar 🍯 via npm: Create an element and init the CodeJar 🍯: Second argument to CodeJar is a highlighting function (like Prism.js, highlight.js): Third argument to CodeJar is options: tab: string replaces "tabs" with given string. Default: \t . Note: use css rule tab size to customize size. indentOn: RegExp allows auto indent rule to be customized. Default /[({\[]$/…
read the full codejar overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lite-xl or codejar more popular?
lite-xl has 6,510 GitHub stars and codejar has 1,988. lite-xl has the larger community by that measure.
Are lite-xl and codejar free?
Both are open source. lite-xl is licensed under MIT and codejar under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lite-xl and codejar?
lite-xl is written in Lua and codejar 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, lite-xl or codejar?
Choose lite-xl if you want the larger community (6,510 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose codejar if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.