head to head · open source
Neovim vs fresh
Neovim has 102,524 GitHub stars, 7,127 forks, 1,900 open issues and last shipped today. fresh has 8,996 stars, 342 forks, 369 open issues and last shipped today. Neovim leads on adoption by 1,040% (102,524 vs 8,996 stars). Neovim is written in Vim Script under a custom or non-standard licence; fresh is written in Rust under GPL-3.0. Neovim has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, fresh 4%. fresh was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (text-editor), 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
| Neovim | fresh | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 103K | ★ 9.0K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Vim Script | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-23 | 2026-09-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.1K | ⑂ 342 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Neovim if
- You weight community size — 103K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Vim Script
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick fresh if
- You want the fresh feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and fresh fits your workflow better
About Neovim
Neovim is a Vim fork text editor focused on extensibility and usability, built as a modern refactoring of Vim’s codebase. It lives in the developer tools ecosystem, specifically as a terminal based code editor that maintains compatibility with Vim’s core editing model while adding new capabilities.
read the full Neovim overview →
About fresh
Fresh is a terminal based IDE and text editor written in Rust and released under the GPL 3.0 licence, aimed at developers who want the familiar editing experience of a graphical editor inside a terminal, with zero configuration required.
read the full fresh overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Neovim or fresh more popular?
Neovim has 102,524 GitHub stars and fresh has 8,996. Neovim has the larger community by that measure.
Are Neovim and fresh free?
Both are open source. Neovim has no licence declared in this registry, and fresh is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Neovim and fresh?
Neovim is written in Vim Script and fresh in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Neovim or fresh?
Choose Neovim if you want the larger community (102,524 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose fresh if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.