head to head · open source
vscode vs monaco-editor
vscode has 194,614 GitHub stars, 44,384 forks, 21,181 open issues and last shipped yesterday. monaco-editor has 46,953 stars, 4,170 forks, 859 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vscode leads on adoption by 314% (194,614 vs 46,953 stars). vscode is written in TypeScript under MIT; monaco-editor is written in JavaScript under MIT. vscode has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, monaco-editor 9%. vscode was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (editor, typescript), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| vscode | monaco-editor | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 195K | ★ 47K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 44K | ⑂ 4.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick vscode if
- You weight community size — 195K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick monaco-editor if
- You want the monaco-editor feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and monaco-editor fits your workflow better
About vscode
Visual Studio Code Open Source ("Code OSS") The Repository This repository (" Code OSS ") is where we (Microsoft) develop the Visual Studio Code product together with the community. Not only do we work on code and issues here, but we also publish our roadmap, monthly iteration plans, and our endgame plans. This source code is available to everyone under the standard MIT license. Visual Studio Code Visual Studio Code is a distribution of the Code OSS repository with Microsoft specific customizations released under a traditional Microsoft product license. Visual Studio Code combines the simplicity of a code editor…
read the full vscode overview →
About monaco-editor
Monaco Editor The Monaco Editor is the fully featured code editor from VS Code. Check out the VS Code docs to see some of the supported features. Try it out Try out the editor and see various examples in our interactive playground. The playground is the best way to learn about how to use the editor, which features is supports, to try out different versions and to create minimal reproducible examples for bug reports. Installing You will get: inside /esm : ESM version of the editor (compatible with e.g. webpack) monaco.d.ts : this specifies the API of the editor (this is what is actually versioned, everything else…
read the full monaco-editor 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 vscode or monaco-editor more popular?
vscode has 194,614 GitHub stars and monaco-editor has 46,953. vscode has the larger community by that measure.
Are vscode and monaco-editor free?
Both are open source. vscode is licensed under MIT and monaco-editor under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vscode and monaco-editor?
vscode is written in TypeScript and monaco-editor in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, vscode or monaco-editor?
Choose vscode if you want the larger community (194,614 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose monaco-editor if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.