head to head · open source
Neovim vs nvimdots
Neovim has 102,822 GitHub stars, 7,146 forks, 1,900 open issues and last shipped today. nvimdots has 3,416 stars, 479 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Neovim leads on adoption by 2,910% (102,822 vs 3,416 stars). Neovim is written in Vim Script under a custom or non-standard licence; nvimdots is written in Lua under BSD-3-Clause. Neovim has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, nvimdots 14%. Neovim was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (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 | nvimdots | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 103K | ★ 3.4K |
| License | Custom / other | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Vim Script | Lua |
| Last push | 2026-10-05 | 2026-10-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.1K | ⑂ 479 |
| 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 nvimdots if
- You want the nvimdots feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- You evaluated both and nvimdots 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 nvimdots
nvimdots is a complete, modular Neovim configuration written in pure Lua for developers on Linux, macOS, Windows, and NixOS who want a ready to use, IDE like editor setup without assembling plugins themselves.
read the full nvimdots overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Neovim or nvimdots more popular?
Neovim has 102,822 GitHub stars and nvimdots has 3,416. Neovim has the larger community by that measure.
Are Neovim and nvimdots free?
Both are open source. Neovim has no licence declared in this registry, and nvimdots is licensed under BSD-3-Clause. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Neovim and nvimdots?
Neovim is written in Vim Script and nvimdots 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 nvimdots?
Choose Neovim if you want the larger community (102,822 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose nvimdots if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.