head to head · open source

monaco-editor vs lightning-browser-extension

monaco-editor has 46,944 GitHub stars, 4,167 forks, 859 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lightning-browser-extension has 586 stars, 227 forks, 237 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. monaco-editor leads on adoption by 7,911% (46,944 vs 586 stars). monaco-editor is written in JavaScript under MIT; lightning-browser-extension is written in TypeScript under MIT. monaco-editor has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, lightning-browser-extension 39%. monaco-editor was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.

Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.

monaco-editor ★ 47K lightning-browser-extension ★ 586 category Productivity & Utilities

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Side by side

monaco-editor lightning-browser-extension
GitHub stars ★ 47K ★ 586
License MIT MIT
Written in JavaScript TypeScript
Last push 2026-11-02 2026-10-30
Forks ⑂ 4.2K ⑂ 227
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

full monaco-editor profile →

pick lightning-browser-extension if

  • You want the lightning-browser-extension feature set and don't need the biggest community
  • You prefer the MIT license terms
  • Your stack matches TypeScript
  • You evaluated both and lightning-browser-extension fits your workflow better

full lightning-browser-extension profile →

About monaco-editor

Monaco Editor The Monaco Editor is the fully featured code editor from VS Code. Check out the VS Code docs to see some of the supported features. Try it out Try out the editor and see various examples in our interactive playground. The playground is the best way to learn about how to use the editor, which features is supports, to try out different versions and to create minimal reproducible examples for bug reports. Installing You will get: inside /esm : ESM version of the editor (compatible with e.g. webpack) monaco.d.ts : this specifies the API of the editor (this is what is actually versioned, everything else…

read the full monaco-editor overview →

About lightning-browser-extension

⚡ Alby Lightning Browser Extension Seamlessly bring Bitcoin's Lightning Network to your browser. The Alby browser extension seamlessly integrates the Bitcoin Lightning Network into websites, enabling both payments and authentication flows. Designed to be a lightweight and efficient web extension, Alby allows browsers to interact with the Lightning Network programmatically. It focuses on web payments rather than advanced node management, ensuring a simple and intuitive user experience. Alby implements the WebLN standard, providing a universal interface for websites to: Connect to Lightning Network nodes Request…

read the full lightning-browser-extension overview →

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Frequently asked questions

Is monaco-editor or lightning-browser-extension more popular?

monaco-editor has 46,944 GitHub stars and lightning-browser-extension has 586. monaco-editor has the larger community by that measure.

Are monaco-editor and lightning-browser-extension free?

Both are open source. monaco-editor is licensed under MIT and lightning-browser-extension under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.

What is the difference between monaco-editor and lightning-browser-extension?

monaco-editor is written in JavaScript and lightning-browser-extension 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, monaco-editor or lightning-browser-extension?

Choose monaco-editor if you want the larger community (46,944 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose lightning-browser-extension if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.