head to head · open source
vscodium vs ecode
vscodium has 33,332 GitHub stars, 1,864 forks, 146 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. ecode has 1,680 stars, 29 forks, 34 open issues and last shipped 16 days ago. vscodium leads on adoption by 1,884% (33,332 vs 1,680 stars). vscodium is written in Shell under MIT; ecode is written in Lua under MIT. vscodium has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, ecode 2%. vscodium was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (editor, 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 | ecode | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | Lua |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 29 |
| 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 ecode if
- You want the ecode feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- You evaluated both and ecode 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 ecode
ecode is a lightweight, multi platform code editor built on the hardware accelerated eepp GUI for developers who want responsiveness and performance on modern hardware, released under the MIT licence.
read the full ecode overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vscodium or ecode more popular?
vscodium has 33,332 GitHub stars and ecode has 1,680. vscodium has the larger community by that measure.
Are vscodium and ecode free?
Both are open source. vscodium is licensed under MIT and ecode under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vscodium and ecode?
vscodium is written in Shell and ecode in Lua. 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 ecode?
Choose vscodium if you want the larger community (33,332 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ecode if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.