head to head · open source
Zed vs opcode
Zed has 90,530 GitHub stars, 10,686 forks, 3,159 open issues and last shipped today. opcode has 22,408 stars, 1,720 forks, 332 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zed leads on adoption by 304% (90,530 vs 22,408 stars). Zed is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; opcode is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Zed has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, opcode 8%. 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 | opcode | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 22K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| 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 opcode if
- You want the opcode feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and opcode 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 opcode
opcode is an open source desktop GUI application and toolkit for Claude Code that provides a visual command centre for projects, sessions, custom agents, Model Context Protocol servers, checkpoints, and API usage, aimed at developers who already work with Claude Code from the command line and want a graphical layer over it.
read the full opcode overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zed or opcode more popular?
Zed has 90,530 GitHub stars and opcode has 22,408. Zed has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zed and opcode free?
Both are open source. Zed has no licence declared in this registry, and opcode is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Zed and opcode?
Zed is written in Rust and opcode 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 opcode?
Choose Zed if you want the larger community (90,530 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose opcode if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.