head to head · open source
Neovim vs goneovim
Neovim has 102,908 GitHub stars, 7,163 forks, 1,900 open issues and last shipped today. goneovim has 2,622 stars, 69 forks, 103 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Neovim leads on adoption by 3,825% (102,908 vs 2,622 stars). Neovim is written in Vim Script under a custom or non-standard licence; goneovim is written in Go under MIT. Neovim has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, goneovim 3%. Neovim was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (neovim, nvim, 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 | goneovim | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 103K | ★ 2.6K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Vim Script | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-08 | 2026-07-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.2K | ⑂ 69 |
| 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 goneovim if
- You want the goneovim feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and goneovim 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 goneovim
goneovim is a cross platform graphical frontend for Neovim, written in Go with a Qt binding, for people who want the editing power of nvim with mouse support, custom fonts, and a richer drawing surface than a terminal provides.
read the full goneovim overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Neovim or goneovim more popular?
Neovim has 102,908 GitHub stars and goneovim has 2,622. Neovim has the larger community by that measure.
Are Neovim and goneovim free?
Both are open source. Neovim has no licence declared in this registry, and goneovim is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Neovim and goneovim?
Neovim is written in Vim Script and goneovim in Go. 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 goneovim?
Choose Neovim if you want the larger community (102,908 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose goneovim if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.