head to head · open source
NvChad vs Kilo
NvChad has 28,530 GitHub stars, 2,212 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. Kilo has 27,853 stars, 3,335 forks, 586 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NvChad leads on adoption by 2% (28,530 vs 27,853 stars). NvChad is written in Lua under GPL-3.0; Kilo is written in TypeScript under MIT. NvChad has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Kilo 12%. Kilo 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
| NvChad | Kilo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 28K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Lua | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-24 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 3.3K |
| 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 Kilo if
- You want the Kilo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Kilo 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 Kilo
English 简体中文 繁體中文 한국어 Deutsch Español Français Italiano Dansk 日本語 Polski Русский Bosanski العربية Norsk Português (Brasil) ไทย Türkçe Українська বাংলা Ελληνικά Tiếng Việt The open source coding agent for building with AI in VS Code, JetBrains, or the CLI. Kilo Code is an AI coding agent that meets you everywhere you work: VS Code, JetBrains, and the CLI. It's open source with open pricing. You pick from 500+ models, switch between them mid task, and pay the model provider's rate with zero markup. No API keys required to start. Installation Pick where you want to run Kilo. VS Code Install the Kilo Code extension…
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Frequently asked questions
Is NvChad or Kilo more popular?
NvChad has 28,530 GitHub stars and Kilo has 27,853. NvChad has the larger community by that measure.
Are NvChad and Kilo free?
Both are open source. NvChad is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Kilo under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NvChad and Kilo?
NvChad is written in Lua and Kilo in TypeScript. 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 Kilo?
Choose NvChad if you want the larger community (28,530 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Kilo if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.