head to head · open source
monaco-editor vs Linguist
monaco-editor has 46,944 GitHub stars, 4,167 forks, 859 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Linguist has 1,083 stars, 51 forks, 267 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. monaco-editor leads on adoption by 4,235% (46,944 vs 1,083 stars). monaco-editor is written in JavaScript under MIT; Linguist is written in TypeScript under BSD-3-Clause. monaco-editor has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Linguist 5%. 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.
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Side by side
| monaco-editor | Linguist | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.2K | ⑂ 51 |
| 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 Linguist if
- You want the Linguist feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Linguist fits your workflow better
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 Linguist
Linguist is a powerful browser extension built to replace commercial translation services — private, fast, and under your control. Translate web pages, highlighted text, subtitles (including Netflix), and private messages; hear translations via TTS; and save entries to a personal dictionary. Supports 130 languages. Why Linguist? Linguist is a standalone translation system — not a thin wrapper around a commercial widget. Translate privately and offline on your device, or plug in any backend you choose (including your own; see Custom translators). See a custom translators list for popular bindings. Linguist is…
read the full Linguist overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is monaco-editor or Linguist more popular?
monaco-editor has 46,944 GitHub stars and Linguist has 1,083. monaco-editor has the larger community by that measure.
Are monaco-editor and Linguist free?
Both are open source. monaco-editor is licensed under MIT and Linguist under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between monaco-editor and Linguist?
monaco-editor is written in JavaScript and Linguist 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 Linguist?
Choose monaco-editor if you want the larger community (46,944 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Linguist if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.