head to head · open source
Zed vs Kilo
Zed has 92,568 GitHub stars, 11,364 forks, 3,159 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Kilo has 27,834 stars, 3,332 forks, 586 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zed leads on adoption by 233% (92,568 vs 27,834 stars). Zed is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; Kilo is written in TypeScript under MIT. Zed has attracted 12% 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.
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 | Kilo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 93K | ★ 28K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 3.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Zed if
- You weight community size — 93K 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 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 Zed
Zed Welcome to Zed, a high performance, multiplayer code editor from the creators of Atom and Tree sitter. Installation On macOS, Linux, and Windows you can download Zed directly or install Zed via your local package manager (macOS/Linux/Windows). Other platforms are not yet available: Web (tracking discussion) Developing Zed Building Zed for macOS Building Zed for Linux Building Zed for Windows Contributing See CONTRIBUTING.md for ways you can contribute to Zed. Also... we're hiring! Check out our jobs page for open roles. Licensing Zed source code is licensed primarily under GPL 3.0 or later, with Apache 2.0…
About Kilo
English 简体中文 繁體中文 한국어 Deutsch Español Français Italiano Dansk 日本語 Polski Русский Bosanski العربية Norsk Português (Brasil) ไทย Türkçe Українська বাংলা Ελληνικά Tiếng Việt The open source coding agent for building with AI in VS Code, JetBrains, or the CLI. Kilo Code is an AI coding agent that meets you everywhere you work: VS Code, JetBrains, and the CLI. It's open source with open pricing. You pick from 500+ models, switch between them mid task, and pay the model provider's rate with zero markup. No API keys required to start. Installation Pick where you want to run Kilo. VS Code Install the Kilo Code extension…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zed or Kilo more popular?
Zed has 92,568 GitHub stars and Kilo has 27,834. Zed has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zed and Kilo free?
Both are open source. Zed has no licence declared in this registry, and Kilo is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Zed and Kilo?
Zed is written in Rust 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, Zed or Kilo?
Choose Zed if you want the larger community (92,568 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Kilo if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.