head to head · open source
Zed vs Xed-Editor
Zed has 90,586 GitHub stars, 10,702 forks, 3,159 open issues and last shipped today. Xed-Editor has 2,311 stars, 159 forks, 80 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zed leads on adoption by 3,820% (90,586 vs 2,311 stars). Zed is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; Xed-Editor is written in Kotlin under GPL-3.0. Zed has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, Xed-Editor 7%. 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 | Xed-Editor | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Kotlin |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 159 |
| 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 Xed-Editor if
- You want the Xed-Editor feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Kotlin
- You evaluated both and Xed-Editor 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 Xed-Editor
Xed Editor is a free, GPL 3.0 licensed text and code editor for Android, written in Kotlin, built for developers and power users who want syntax highlighting, LSP powered code intelligence, a built in terminal, and extensions on a phone or tablet.
read the full Xed-Editor overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zed or Xed-Editor more popular?
Zed has 90,586 GitHub stars and Xed-Editor has 2,311. Zed has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zed and Xed-Editor free?
Both are open source. Zed has no licence declared in this registry, and Xed-Editor is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Zed and Xed-Editor?
Zed is written in Rust and Xed-Editor in Kotlin. 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 Xed-Editor?
Choose Zed if you want the larger community (90,586 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Xed-Editor if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.