head to head · open source
NvChad vs ultimatepp
NvChad has 28,513 GitHub stars, 2,214 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. ultimatepp has 995 stars, 144 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. NvChad leads on adoption by 2,766% (28,513 vs 995 stars). NvChad is written in Lua under GPL-3.0; ultimatepp is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause. NvChad has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, ultimatepp 14%. ultimatepp 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 | ultimatepp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 995 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | Lua | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-10-19 | 2026-10-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 144 |
| 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 ultimatepp if
- You want the ultimatepp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and ultimatepp 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 ultimatepp
U++ Introduction U++ is a C++ cross platform rapid application development framework focused on programmers productivity. It includes a set of libraries (GUI, SQL, Network, etc.), with an integrated development environment. Rapid development is achieved by the smart and aggressive use of C++ rather than through fancy code generators. In this respect, U++ competes with popular scripting languages while preserving C/C++ runtime characteristics. The U++ integrated development environment, TheIDE, introduces modular concepts to C++ programming. It features BLITZ build technology to speedup C++ rebuilds by up to 4…
read the full ultimatepp overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NvChad or ultimatepp more popular?
NvChad has 28,513 GitHub stars and ultimatepp has 995. NvChad has the larger community by that measure.
Are NvChad and ultimatepp free?
Both are open source. NvChad is licensed under GPL-3.0 and ultimatepp under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NvChad and ultimatepp?
NvChad is written in Lua and ultimatepp in C++. 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 ultimatepp?
Choose NvChad if you want the larger community (28,513 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose ultimatepp if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.