head to head · open source
monaco-editor vs Lightning-Browser
monaco-editor has 46,773 GitHub stars, 4,131 forks, 859 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. Lightning-Browser has 2,429 stars, 856 forks, 354 open issues and last shipped yesterday. monaco-editor leads on adoption by 1,826% (46,773 vs 2,429 stars). monaco-editor is written in JavaScript under MIT; Lightning-Browser is written in Kotlin under MPL-2.0. monaco-editor has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Lightning-Browser 35%. Lightning-Browser was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (browser), 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
| monaco-editor | Lightning-Browser | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | MIT | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Kotlin |
| Last push | 2026-09-13 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.1K | ⑂ 856 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick monaco-editor if
- You weight community size — 47K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Lightning-Browser if
- You want the Lightning-Browser feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Kotlin
- You evaluated both and Lightning-Browser fits your workflow better
About monaco-editor
Monaco Editor is the fully featured code editor from VS Code, packaged as an npm library so that developers can embed the same editing experience inside their own browser based applications.
read the full monaco-editor overview →
About Lightning-Browser
Lightning Browser is a lightweight, open source Android web browser written in Kotlin and Java and released under the Mozilla Public License 2.0, built for Android users who want fast, simple, privacy conscious browsing without a heavyweight browser suite.
read the full Lightning-Browser overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is monaco-editor or Lightning-Browser more popular?
monaco-editor has 46,773 GitHub stars and Lightning-Browser has 2,429. monaco-editor has the larger community by that measure.
Are monaco-editor and Lightning-Browser free?
Both are open source. monaco-editor is licensed under MIT and Lightning-Browser under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between monaco-editor and Lightning-Browser?
monaco-editor is written in JavaScript and Lightning-Browser in Kotlin. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, monaco-editor or Lightning-Browser?
Choose monaco-editor if you want the larger community (46,773 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Lightning-Browser if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.