head to head · open source
lite-xl vs react-ace
lite-xl has 6,390 GitHub stars, 317 forks, 330 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. react-ace has 4,206 stars, 598 forks, 217 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. lite-xl leads on adoption by 52% (6,390 vs 4,206 stars). lite-xl is written in Lua under MIT; react-ace is written in TypeScript under MIT. lite-xl has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, react-ace 14%. react-ace 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 | react-ace | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.4K | ★ 4.2K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Lua | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-03-11 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 317 | ⑂ 598 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lite-xl if
- You weight community size — 6.4K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- 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 lite-xl
Lite XL is a lightweight text editor written mostly in Lua and built on SDL2, released under the MIT licence for developers who want a small, fast, extensible editor whose entire source they can read and change.
read the full lite-xl overview →
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 lite-xl or react-ace more popular?
lite-xl has 6,390 GitHub stars and react-ace has 4,206. lite-xl has the larger community by that measure.
Are lite-xl and react-ace free?
Both are open source. lite-xl is licensed under MIT and react-ace under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lite-xl and react-ace?
lite-xl is written in Lua 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, lite-xl or react-ace?
Choose lite-xl if you want the larger community (6,390 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose react-ace if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.