head to head · open source
vscodium vs ecode
vscodium has 33,973 GitHub stars, 1,920 forks, 146 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. ecode has 1,695 stars, 31 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. vscodium leads on adoption by 1,904% (33,973 vs 1,695 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%. ecode 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 | ★ 34K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | Lua |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 31 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick vscodium if
- You weight community size — 34K 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 Free/Libre Open Source Software Binaries of Visual Studio Code This is not a fork. This is a repository of scripts to automatically build Microsoft's vscode repository into freely licensed binaries with a community driven default configuration. Table of Contents Download/Install Install with Brew Install with Windows Package Manager (WinGet) Install with Chocolatey Install with Scoop Install with snap Install with Package Manager Install on Arch Linux Flatpak Option Build Why Does This Exist More Info Supported Platforms Previously Supported Platforms Download/Install :tada: :tada: Download latest…
read the full vscodium overview →
About ecode
ecode ecode is a lightweight multi platform code editor designed for modern hardware with a focus on responsiveness and performance. It has been developed with the hardware accelerated eepp GUI, which provides the core technology for the editor. The project comes as the first serious project using the eepp GUI, and it's currently being developed to improve the eepp GUI library as part of one of its main objectives. Screenshots For more screenshots checkout running on macOS, running on Windows, running on Haiku, low dpi, code completion, terminal, file locator, file formats, global find, global replace, linter…
read the full ecode overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vscodium or ecode more popular?
vscodium has 33,973 GitHub stars and ecode has 1,695. 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 (33,973 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ecode if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.