head to head · open source
NvChad vs xum
NvChad has 28,511 GitHub stars, 2,215 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. xum has 2,054 stars, 142 forks, 490 open issues and last shipped today. NvChad leads on adoption by 1,288% (28,511 vs 2,054 stars). NvChad is written in Lua under GPL-3.0; xum is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. NvChad has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, xum 7%. xum 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 | xum | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Lua | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-07-03 | 2026-10-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 142 |
| 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 xum if
- You want the xum 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 xum 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 xum
Xum is a desktop application and coding agent multiplexer for developers who want to run many AI coding agents in parallel across isolated workspaces, with runtimes that span a local project directory, git worktrees on the same machine, and remote execution over SSH.
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Frequently asked questions
Is NvChad or xum more popular?
NvChad has 28,511 GitHub stars and xum has 2,054. NvChad has the larger community by that measure.
Are NvChad and xum free?
Both are open source. NvChad is licensed under GPL-3.0 and xum under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NvChad and xum?
NvChad is written in Lua and xum 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 xum?
Choose NvChad if you want the larger community (28,511 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose xum if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.