head to head · open source
Neovim vs spyder
Neovim has 102,498 GitHub stars, 7,126 forks, 1,900 open issues and last shipped yesterday. spyder has 9,335 stars, 1,803 forks, 1,353 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Neovim leads on adoption by 998% (102,498 vs 9,335 stars). Neovim is written in Vim Script under a custom or non-standard licence; spyder is written in Python under MIT. Neovim has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, spyder 19%. Neovim 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 | spyder | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 102K | ★ 9.3K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Vim Script | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-22 | 2026-09-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.1K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| 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 spyder if
- You want the spyder feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and spyder 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 spyder
Spyder is a free, MIT licensed development environment for scientific Python, a desktop IDE built in Python on the Qt toolkit, intended for scientists, engineers, analysts and students who write and run Python code.
read the full spyder overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Neovim or spyder more popular?
Neovim has 102,498 GitHub stars and spyder has 9,335. Neovim has the larger community by that measure.
Are Neovim and spyder free?
Both are open source. Neovim has no licence declared in this registry, and spyder is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Neovim and spyder?
Neovim is written in Vim Script and spyder in Python. 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 spyder?
Choose Neovim if you want the larger community (102,498 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose spyder if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.