head to head · open source
monaco-editor vs lightning-browser-extension
monaco-editor has 46,766 GitHub stars, 4,131 forks, 859 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. lightning-browser-extension has 584 stars, 226 forks, 237 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. monaco-editor leads on adoption by 7,908% (46,766 vs 584 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%. lightning-browser-extension 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.
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Side by side
| monaco-editor | lightning-browser-extension | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 584 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-13 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.1K | ⑂ 226 |
| 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-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
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-extension
The Alby lightning browser extension is an open source, MIT licensed Bitcoin Lightning browser extension that exposes a WebLN wallet interface to multiple Lightning nodes and acts as a key signer for Nostr, Liquid and onchain use, built for people who want Lightning payments and authentication to happen inside an ordinary web browser.
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 46,766 GitHub stars and lightning-browser-extension has 584. 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 (46,766 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose lightning-browser-extension if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.