head to head · open source
monaco-editor vs Zen Browser
monaco-editor has 46,944 GitHub stars, 4,167 forks, 859 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zen Browser has 45,517 stars, 1,946 forks, 689 open issues and last shipped yesterday. monaco-editor leads on adoption by 3% (46,944 vs 45,517 stars). monaco-editor is written in JavaScript under MIT; Zen Browser is written in C++ under MPL-2.0. monaco-editor has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Zen Browser 4%. Zen Browser 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 | Zen Browser | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 46K |
| License | MIT | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.2K | ⑂ 1.9K |
| 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 Zen Browser if
- You want the Zen Browser feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and Zen Browser 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 Zen Browser
Zen Browser Zen is a firefox based browser with the aim of pushing your productivity to a new level! Download • Website • Documentation • Release Notes Firefox Versions Release Is currently built using Firefox version 155.0.1 ! Twilight Is currently built using Firefox version RC 155.0.1 ! Contributing If you'd like to report a bug, please do so on our GitHub Issues page and for feature requests, you can use GitHub Discussions. Zen is an open source project, and we welcome contributions from the community! Please take a look at the contribution guidelines before getting started! Partners Thanks to all the…
read the full Zen Browser overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is monaco-editor or Zen Browser more popular?
monaco-editor has 46,944 GitHub stars and Zen Browser has 45,517. monaco-editor has the larger community by that measure.
Are monaco-editor and Zen Browser free?
Both are open source. monaco-editor is licensed under MIT and Zen Browser under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between monaco-editor and Zen Browser?
monaco-editor is written in JavaScript and Zen Browser in C++. 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 Zen Browser?
Choose monaco-editor if you want the larger community (46,944 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Zen Browser if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.