head to head · open source
NvChad vs stagewise
NvChad has 28,494 GitHub stars, 2,216 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. stagewise has 6,822 stars, 507 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. NvChad leads on adoption by 318% (28,494 vs 6,822 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 7%. 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 | ★ 28K | ★ 6.8K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Lua | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-07-03 | 2026-09-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 507 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick NvChad if
- You weight community size — 28K 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 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 stagewise
stagewise is an open source, AGPL 3.0 agentic IDE written in TypeScript, developed by stagewise GmbH, that embeds a coding agent directly in the editor and is aimed at developers who want to browse, build, and orchestrate agents in one place while bringing their own model keys.
read the full stagewise overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NvChad or stagewise more popular?
NvChad has 28,494 GitHub stars and stagewise has 6,822. 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 (28,494 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.