head to head · open source
NvChad vs ecode
NvChad has 28,528 GitHub stars, 2,211 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. ecode has 1,695 stars, 31 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. NvChad leads on adoption by 1,583% (28,528 vs 1,695 stars). NvChad is written in Lua under GPL-3.0; ecode is written in Lua under MIT. NvChad has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, ecode 2%. ecode 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 | ecode | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Lua | Lua |
| Last push | 2026-10-24 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 31 |
| 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 ecode if
- You want the ecode feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- You evaluated both and ecode fits your workflow better
About NvChad
NvChad Home • Install • Contribute • Support • Features Showcase What is it? NvChad is a neovim config written in lua aiming to provide a base configuration with very beautiful UI and blazing fast startuptime (around 0.02 secs 0.07 secs). We tweak UI plugins such as telescope, nvim tree etc well to provide an aesthetic UI experience. Lazy loading is done 93% of the time meaning that plugins will not be loaded by default, they will be loaded only when required also at specific commands, events etc. This lowers the startuptime and it was like 0.07 secs tested on an old pentium machine 1.4ghz + 4gb ram & HDD…
read the full NvChad overview →
About ecode
ecode ecode is a lightweight multi platform code editor designed for modern hardware with a focus on responsiveness and performance. It has been developed with the hardware accelerated eepp GUI, which provides the core technology for the editor. The project comes as the first serious project using the eepp GUI, and it's currently being developed to improve the eepp GUI library as part of one of its main objectives. Screenshots For more screenshots checkout running on macOS, running on Windows, running on Haiku, low dpi, code completion, terminal, file locator, file formats, global find, global replace, linter…
read the full ecode overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NvChad or ecode more popular?
NvChad has 28,528 GitHub stars and ecode has 1,695. NvChad has the larger community by that measure.
Are NvChad and ecode free?
Both are open source. NvChad is licensed under GPL-3.0 and ecode under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NvChad and ecode?
NvChad is written in Lua and ecode 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, NvChad or ecode?
Choose NvChad if you want the larger community (28,528 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose ecode if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.