head to head · open source
vscodium vs phoenix
vscodium has 33,512 GitHub stars, 1,877 forks, 146 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. phoenix has 2,998 stars, 205 forks, 266 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vscodium leads on adoption by 1,018% (33,512 vs 2,998 stars). vscodium is written in Shell under MIT; phoenix is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0. vscodium has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, phoenix 7%. phoenix 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 | phoenix | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 3.0K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Shell | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-03 | 2026-10-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 205 |
| 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 phoenix if
- You want the phoenix feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and phoenix 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 phoenix
Phoenix is a free, open source text editor for web developers that runs in the browser and aims to make editing JavaScript, HTML, and CSS feel as approachable as playing a video game.
read the full phoenix overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vscodium or phoenix more popular?
vscodium has 33,512 GitHub stars and phoenix has 2,998. vscodium has the larger community by that measure.
Are vscodium and phoenix free?
Both are open source. vscodium is licensed under MIT and phoenix under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vscodium and phoenix?
vscodium is written in Shell and phoenix 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, vscodium or phoenix?
Choose vscodium if you want the larger community (33,512 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose phoenix if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.