head to head · open source
OpenCode vs Zed
OpenCode has 224,079 GitHub stars, 30,135 forks, 5,727 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zed has 92,568 stars, 11,364 forks, 3,159 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenCode leads on adoption by 142% (224,079 vs 92,568 stars). OpenCode is written in TypeScript under MIT; Zed is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. OpenCode has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, Zed 12%. OpenCode 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.
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Side by side
| OpenCode | Zed | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 224K | ★ 93K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 30K | ⑂ 11K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenCode if
- You weight community size — 224K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Zed if
- You want the Zed feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Zed fits your workflow better
About OpenCode
The open source AI coding agent. English 简体中文 繁體中文 한국어 Deutsch Español Français Italiano Dansk 日本語 Polski Русский Bosanski العربية Norsk Português (Brasil) ไทย Türkçe Українська বাংলা Ελληνικά Tiếng Việt Installation [!TIP] Remove versions older than 0.1.x before installing. Desktop App (BETA) OpenCode is also available as a desktop application. Download directly from the releases page or opencode.ai/download. Installation Directory The install script respects the following priority order for the installation path: 1. $OPENCODE INSTALL DIR Custom installation directory 2. $XDG BIN DIR XDG Base Directory…
read the full OpenCode overview →
About Zed
Zed Welcome to Zed, a high performance, multiplayer code editor from the creators of Atom and Tree sitter. Installation On macOS, Linux, and Windows you can download Zed directly or install Zed via your local package manager (macOS/Linux/Windows). Other platforms are not yet available: Web (tracking discussion) Developing Zed Building Zed for macOS Building Zed for Linux Building Zed for Windows Contributing See CONTRIBUTING.md for ways you can contribute to Zed. Also... we're hiring! Check out our jobs page for open roles. Licensing Zed source code is licensed primarily under GPL 3.0 or later, with Apache 2.0…
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenCode or Zed more popular?
OpenCode has 224,079 GitHub stars and Zed has 92,568. OpenCode has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenCode and Zed free?
Both are open source. OpenCode is licensed under MIT, and Zed has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between OpenCode and Zed?
OpenCode is written in TypeScript and Zed in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, OpenCode or Zed?
Choose OpenCode if you want the larger community (224,079 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Zed if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.