head to head · open source
monaco-editor vs Linguist
monaco-editor has 46,758 GitHub stars, 4,128 forks, 859 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Linguist has 1,060 stars, 49 forks, 267 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. monaco-editor leads on adoption by 4,311% (46,758 vs 1,060 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 | 2026-09-13 | 2026-09-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.1K | ⑂ 49 |
| 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 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 Linguist
Linguist is an open source browser extension, written in TypeScript and released under the BSD 3 Clause licence, that translates web pages, highlighted text, subtitles, and text inputs directly inside the browser. It lives in the browser extension ecosystem, with builds for Firefox, Chrome, and other browsers that support extensions, and it positions itself as a standalone translation system rather than a thin wrapper around a commercial translation widget. The project declares support for 130 languages and publishes its documentation and downloads through linguister.io and its GitHub releases page.…
read the full Linguist overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is monaco-editor or Linguist more popular?
monaco-editor has 46,758 GitHub stars and Linguist has 1,060. 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 (46,758 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Linguist if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.