head to head · open source
NvChad vs terax-ai
NvChad has 28,530 GitHub stars, 2,212 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. terax-ai has 9,437 stars, 1,049 forks, 449 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. NvChad leads on adoption by 202% (28,530 vs 9,437 stars). NvChad is written in Lua under GPL-3.0; terax-ai is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. NvChad has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, terax-ai 11%. terax-ai 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| NvChad | terax-ai | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 9.4K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Lua | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-24 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| 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 terax-ai if
- You want the terax-ai feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and terax-ai 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 terax-ai
Terax Lightweight Terminal first AI native dev workspace. Website · Docs · Website's source code 简体中文 Español Deutsch Français 日本語 한국어 Português Polski Русский Bahasa Indonesia हिन्दी Terax is a lightweight open source terminal first AI native development environment (ADE) built on Tauri 2 + Rust and React 19. A native PTY backend with a WebGL renderer, an agentic AI side panel that runs against your own keys or fully local models, plus a code editor, file explorer, source control with a git graph, and a web preview pane built in. About 7 8 MB on disk. No telemetry. No account. Screenshots Web preview of local…
read the full terax-ai overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More IDEs & Code Editors projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the IDEs & Code Editors field.
Frequently asked questions
Is NvChad or terax-ai more popular?
NvChad has 28,530 GitHub stars and terax-ai has 9,437. NvChad has the larger community by that measure.
Are NvChad and terax-ai free?
Both are open source. NvChad is licensed under GPL-3.0 and terax-ai under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NvChad and terax-ai?
NvChad is written in Lua and terax-ai 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 terax-ai?
Choose NvChad if you want the larger community (28,530 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose terax-ai if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.