head to head · open source
Neovim vs Kilo
Neovim has 102,393 GitHub stars, 7,115 forks, 1,900 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Kilo has 27,341 stars, 3,165 forks, 586 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Neovim leads on adoption by 275% (102,393 vs 27,341 stars). Neovim is written in Vim Script under a custom or non-standard licence; Kilo is written in TypeScript under MIT. Neovim has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Kilo 12%. Kilo 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
| Neovim | Kilo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 102K | ★ 27K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Vim Script | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.1K | ⑂ 3.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Neovim if
- You weight community size — 102K 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 Kilo if
- You want the Kilo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Kilo 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 Kilo
Kilo is an open source AI coding agent platform that integrates into VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, the CLI, and cloud environments. It enables developers to build, ship, and iterate faster by acting as an autonomous or semi autonomous coding assistant across their entire workflow. Built in TypeScript and licensed under MIT, it supports 500+ models—including GPT 5.5, Claude Opus 4.7, Claude Sonnet 4.6, and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview—without vendor lock in or markup.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Neovim or Kilo more popular?
Neovim has 102,393 GitHub stars and Kilo has 27,341. Neovim has the larger community by that measure.
Are Neovim and Kilo free?
Both are open source. Neovim has no licence declared in this registry, and Kilo is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Neovim and Kilo?
Neovim is written in Vim Script and Kilo 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, Neovim or Kilo?
Choose Neovim if you want the larger community (102,393 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Kilo if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.