head to head · open source
vscodium vs ccls
vscodium has 33,488 GitHub stars, 1,878 forks, 146 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ccls has 4,090 stars, 280 forks, 194 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. vscodium leads on adoption by 719% (33,488 vs 4,090 stars). vscodium is written in Shell under MIT; ccls is written in C++ under Apache-2.0. vscodium has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, ccls 7%. vscodium 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
| vscodium | ccls | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 4.1K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Shell | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-10-01 | 2026-07-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 280 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick vscodium if
- You weight community size — 33K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ccls if
- You want the ccls feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and ccls fits your workflow better
About vscodium
VSCodium is a repository of scripts that automatically build Microsoft's vscode repository into freely licensed binaries with a community driven default configuration, made for developers who want the Visual Studio Code editing experience without Microsoft branding, telemetry, or licensing encumbrance.
read the full vscodium overview →
About ccls
ccls is an open source C, C++, and Objective C language server for developers who want cross references, code hierarchies, completion, and semantic highlighting inside an LSP compatible editor.
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Frequently asked questions
Is vscodium or ccls more popular?
vscodium has 33,488 GitHub stars and ccls has 4,090. vscodium has the larger community by that measure.
Are vscodium and ccls free?
Both are open source. vscodium is licensed under MIT and ccls under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vscodium and ccls?
vscodium is written in Shell and ccls 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, vscodium or ccls?
Choose vscodium if you want the larger community (33,488 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ccls if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.