head to head · open source
monaco-editor vs plasmo
monaco-editor has 46,758 GitHub stars, 4,128 forks, 859 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. plasmo has 13,151 stars, 460 forks, 371 open issues and last shipped yesterday. monaco-editor leads on adoption by 256% (46,758 vs 13,151 stars). monaco-editor is written in JavaScript under MIT; plasmo is written in TypeScript under MIT. monaco-editor has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, plasmo 3%. plasmo was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (typescript), 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 | plasmo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 13K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-13 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.1K | ⑂ 460 |
| 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 plasmo if
- You want the plasmo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and plasmo 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 plasmo
Plasmo is an MIT licensed, TypeScript based browser extension framework that packages the build toolchain, manifest generation, and runtime APIs for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox add ons into a single SDK for React and TypeScript developers.
read the full plasmo overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is monaco-editor or plasmo more popular?
monaco-editor has 46,758 GitHub stars and plasmo has 13,151. monaco-editor has the larger community by that measure.
Are monaco-editor and plasmo free?
Both are open source. monaco-editor is licensed under MIT and plasmo under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between monaco-editor and plasmo?
monaco-editor is written in JavaScript and plasmo 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 plasmo?
Choose monaco-editor if you want the larger community (46,758 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose plasmo if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.