head to head · open source
monaco-editor vs search-by-image
monaco-editor has 46,758 GitHub stars, 4,128 forks, 859 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. search-by-image has 3,749 stars, 318 forks, 77 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. monaco-editor leads on adoption by 1,147% (46,758 vs 3,749 stars). monaco-editor is written in JavaScript under MIT; search-by-image is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. monaco-editor has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, search-by-image 8%. 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 | search-by-image | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-13 | 2026-06-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.1K | ⑂ 318 |
| 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 search-by-image if
- You want the search-by-image feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and search-by-image 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 search-by-image
Search by Image is an open source JavaScript browser extension released under the GNU General Public License v3.0. It lives in the productivity and browser extension ecosystem, where it provides reverse image search from Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Firefox according to the project metadata. The extension addresses a concrete verification problem: users need to determine where an image came from, whether it is duplicated, or whether it is used misleadingly on social media. Instead of copying image URLs or downloading files, users can search with the image directly from the browser.
read the full search-by-image overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is monaco-editor or search-by-image more popular?
monaco-editor has 46,758 GitHub stars and search-by-image has 3,749. monaco-editor has the larger community by that measure.
Are monaco-editor and search-by-image free?
Both are open source. monaco-editor is licensed under MIT and search-by-image under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between monaco-editor and search-by-image?
monaco-editor is written in JavaScript and search-by-image in JavaScript. 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 search-by-image?
Choose monaco-editor if you want the larger community (46,758 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose search-by-image if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.