head to head · open source
vscodium vs Kilo
vscodium has 33,312 GitHub stars, 1,865 forks, 146 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Kilo has 27,369 stars, 3,178 forks, 586 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vscodium leads on adoption by 22% (33,312 vs 27,369 stars). vscodium is written in Shell under MIT; Kilo is written in TypeScript under MIT. vscodium has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Kilo 12%. Kilo was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (vscode), 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 | Kilo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 27K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 3.2K |
| 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 Kilo if
- You want the Kilo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Kilo 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 Kilo
Kilo is an open source AI coding agent platform that integrates into VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, the CLI, and cloud environments. It enables developers to build, ship, and iterate faster by acting as an autonomous or semi autonomous coding assistant across their entire workflow. Built in TypeScript and licensed under MIT, it supports 500+ models—including GPT 5.5, Claude Opus 4.7, Claude Sonnet 4.6, and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview—without vendor lock in or markup.
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Frequently asked questions
Is vscodium or Kilo more popular?
vscodium has 33,312 GitHub stars and Kilo has 27,369. vscodium has the larger community by that measure.
Are vscodium and Kilo free?
Both are open source. vscodium is licensed under MIT and Kilo under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vscodium and Kilo?
vscodium is written in Shell and Kilo in TypeScript. 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 Kilo?
Choose vscodium if you want the larger community (33,312 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Kilo if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.