head to head · open source
Neovim vs NvChad
Neovim has 102,412 GitHub stars, 7,117 forks, 1,900 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NvChad has 28,491 stars, 2,219 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Neovim leads on adoption by 259% (102,412 vs 28,491 stars). Neovim is written in Vim Script under a custom or non-standard licence; NvChad is written in Lua under GPL-3.0. Neovim has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, NvChad 8%. Neovim was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (lua, neovim, nvim, vim), 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 | NvChad | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 102K | ★ 28K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Vim Script | Lua |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-07-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.1K | ⑂ 2.2K |
| 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 NvChad if
- You want the NvChad feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- You evaluated both and NvChad 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 NvChad
NvChad is a Neovim configuration framework written in Lua that provides a base configuration with polished defaults and a beautiful UI, aimed at developers who want a fast, preconfigured editor without assembling a configuration from scratch.
read the full NvChad overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Neovim or NvChad more popular?
Neovim has 102,412 GitHub stars and NvChad has 28,491. Neovim has the larger community by that measure.
Are Neovim and NvChad free?
Both are open source. Neovim has no licence declared in this registry, and NvChad is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Neovim and NvChad?
Neovim is written in Vim Script and NvChad in Lua. 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 NvChad?
Choose Neovim if you want the larger community (102,412 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose NvChad if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.