head to head · open source
NvChad vs stagewise
NvChad has 28,547 GitHub stars, 2,208 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 20 days ago. stagewise has 6,836 stars, 513 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. NvChad leads on adoption by 318% (28,547 vs 6,836 stars). NvChad is written in Lua under GPL-3.0; stagewise is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. NvChad has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, stagewise 8%. stagewise 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 | stagewise | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 6.8K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Lua | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-24 | 2026-11-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 513 |
| 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 stagewise if
- You want the stagewise feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and stagewise 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 stagewise
The Agentic IDE for Open Source Models 简体中文 · Deutsch · 日本語 · Español · 한국어 · Português · Français · Italiano · हिन्दी · Русский · Українська About the project stagewise is an open source agentic IDE for developers with a coding agent built right in. Browse and build in the same tool — no context switching Work with a coding agent that has full access to your tab's console and debugger Make temporary test changes or connect a codebase for permanent edits Reverse engineer any website's components, style systems, and color palettes IDE integration to view and apply code changes in your favorite editor Bring your…
read the full stagewise overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NvChad or stagewise more popular?
NvChad has 28,547 GitHub stars and stagewise has 6,836. NvChad has the larger community by that measure.
Are NvChad and stagewise free?
Both are open source. NvChad is licensed under GPL-3.0 and stagewise under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NvChad and stagewise?
NvChad is written in Lua and stagewise 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 stagewise?
Choose NvChad if you want the larger community (28,547 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose stagewise if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.