head to head · open source
Zed vs code-server
Zed has 90,512 GitHub stars, 10,680 forks, 3,159 open issues and last shipped yesterday. code-server has 79,352 stars, 6,856 forks, 152 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Zed leads on adoption by 14% (90,512 vs 79,352 stars). Zed is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; code-server is written in TypeScript under MIT. Zed has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, code-server 9%. Zed was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Zed | code-server | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 79K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 6.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Zed if
- You weight community size — 91K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick code-server if
- You want the code-server feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and code-server fits your workflow better
About Zed
Zed is a high performance, multiplayer code editor written in Rust, built by the creators of Atom and Tree sitter and aimed at developers who want a native, fast editing surface with AI assistance built in.
About code-server
code server is an MIT licensed TypeScript project from Coder that runs VS Code on a remote machine and serves the full editor in a browser, aimed at developers who want one consistent development environment reachable from any device.
read the full code-server overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zed or code-server more popular?
Zed has 90,512 GitHub stars and code-server has 79,352. Zed has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zed and code-server free?
Both are open source. Zed has no licence declared in this registry, and code-server is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Zed and code-server?
Zed is written in Rust and code-server 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, Zed or code-server?
Choose Zed if you want the larger community (90,512 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose code-server if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.