head to head · open source
Zed vs platformio-core
Zed has 90,634 GitHub stars, 10,708 forks, 3,159 open issues and last shipped yesterday. platformio-core has 9,473 stars, 906 forks, 272 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Zed leads on adoption by 857% (90,634 vs 9,473 stars). Zed is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; platformio-core is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Zed has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, platformio-core 10%. Zed 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
| Zed | platformio-core | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 9.5K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-21 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 906 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Zed if
- You weight community size — 91K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick platformio-core if
- You want the platformio-core feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and platformio-core fits your workflow better
About Zed
Zed is a high performance, multiplayer code editor written in Rust, built by the creators of Atom and Tree sitter and aimed at developers who want a native, fast editing surface with AI assistance built in.
About platformio-core
PlatformIO Core is the open source, Python based command line build and development platform for embedded firmware that gives Arduino, ESP32, ESP8266, AVR, ARM, and CMSIS projects a single cross platform toolchain, unified debugger, and unit testing workflow, and it is aimed at embedded developers, firmware teams, and CI pipelines that need to build for many boards from one declarative project definition.
read the full platformio-core overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zed or platformio-core more popular?
Zed has 90,634 GitHub stars and platformio-core has 9,473. Zed has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zed and platformio-core free?
Both are open source. Zed has no licence declared in this registry, and platformio-core is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Zed and platformio-core?
Zed is written in Rust and platformio-core in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Zed or platformio-core?
Choose Zed if you want the larger community (90,634 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose platformio-core if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.