head to head · open source
NvChad vs apkstudio
NvChad has 28,504 GitHub stars, 2,217 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. apkstudio has 4,666 stars, 740 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped 9 months ago. NvChad leads on adoption by 511% (28,504 vs 4,666 stars). NvChad is written in Lua under GPL-3.0; apkstudio is written in C++ under LGPL-3.0. NvChad has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, apkstudio 16%. NvChad was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ide), 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
| NvChad | apkstudio | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 4.7K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Lua | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-07-03 | 2026-01-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 740 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick NvChad if
- You weight community size — 29K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick apkstudio if
- You want the apkstudio feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and apkstudio fits your workflow better
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 →
About apkstudio
APK Studio is an open source, cross platform Qt6 desktop IDE for reverse engineering Android application packages, built for security researchers, malware analysts and Android developers who need to decompile, inspect, edit, rebuild, sign and install APKs from one graphical workspace instead of a chain of command line tools.
read the full apkstudio overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NvChad or apkstudio more popular?
NvChad has 28,504 GitHub stars and apkstudio has 4,666. NvChad has the larger community by that measure.
Are NvChad and apkstudio free?
Both are open source. NvChad is licensed under GPL-3.0 and apkstudio under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NvChad and apkstudio?
NvChad is written in Lua and apkstudio in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, NvChad or apkstudio?
Choose NvChad if you want the larger community (28,504 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose apkstudio if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.