head to head · open source
vscodium vs sidex
vscodium has 33,312 GitHub stars, 1,865 forks, 146 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. sidex has 2,977 stars, 241 forks, 50 open issues and last shipped 25 days ago. vscodium leads on adoption by 1,019% (33,312 vs 2,977 stars). vscodium is written in Shell under MIT; sidex is written in TypeScript under MIT. vscodium has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, sidex 8%. vscodium was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ide, 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 | sidex | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 3.0K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-08-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 241 |
| 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 sidex if
- You want the sidex feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and sidex 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 sidex
SideX is a port of Visual Studio Code that replaces Electron with Tauri — a Rust backend running against the operating system's native webview — for developers who want the VS Code workbench, editor, terminal and Git tooling without the bundled browser that normally comes with them.
read the full sidex overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vscodium or sidex more popular?
vscodium has 33,312 GitHub stars and sidex has 2,977. vscodium has the larger community by that measure.
Are vscodium and sidex free?
Both are open source. vscodium is licensed under MIT and sidex under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vscodium and sidex?
vscodium is written in Shell and sidex 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 sidex?
Choose vscodium if you want the larger community (33,312 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose sidex if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.