head to head · open source
Neovim vs vscodium
Neovim has 102,412 GitHub stars, 7,117 forks, 1,900 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vscodium has 33,291 stars, 1,866 forks, 146 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Neovim leads on adoption by 208% (102,412 vs 33,291 stars). Neovim is written in Vim Script under a custom or non-standard licence; vscodium is written in Shell under MIT. Neovim has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, vscodium 6%. 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 | vscodium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 102K | ★ 33K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Vim Script | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.1K | ⑂ 1.9K |
| 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 vscodium if
- You want the vscodium feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and vscodium 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 vscodium
VSCodium is a repository of scripts that automatically build Microsoft's vscode repository into freely licensed binaries with a community driven default configuration, made for developers who want the Visual Studio Code editing experience without Microsoft branding, telemetry, or licensing encumbrance.
read the full vscodium overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Neovim or vscodium more popular?
Neovim has 102,412 GitHub stars and vscodium has 33,291. Neovim has the larger community by that measure.
Are Neovim and vscodium free?
Both are open source. Neovim has no licence declared in this registry, and vscodium is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Neovim and vscodium?
Neovim is written in Vim Script and vscodium in Shell. 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 vscodium?
Choose Neovim if you want the larger community (102,412 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose vscodium if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.