head to head · open source
Zed vs Xed-Editor
Zed has 92,641 GitHub stars, 11,395 forks, 3,159 open issues and last shipped today. Xed-Editor has 2,419 stars, 169 forks, 80 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zed leads on adoption by 3,730% (92,641 vs 2,419 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 | ★ 93K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Kotlin |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 169 |
| 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 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 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 Xed-Editor
Xed Editor Xed Editor is a versatile and extensible text editor for Android, featuring syntax highlighting, LSP powered code intelligence, a built in terminal, extensions, and fast project wide tools for efficient editing. Website To learn more about Xed Editor, including its documentation, extensions, themes, icon packs, and account related features, visit the official website: Download Latest Alpha Build : Download from Actions Latest Stable Build : Download from Releases Screenshots Build the Project Choose one of the following build methods. Option 1: Build Locally Build the debug APK (signed with the…
read the full Xed-Editor overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zed or Xed-Editor more popular?
Zed has 92,641 GitHub stars and Xed-Editor has 2,419. 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 (92,641 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.