Open-source code editors in 2026
37 open-source projects, ranked by GitHub stars and how recently each was worked on. Visual Studio Code leads with 195k stars, ahead of Neovim. 36 had code pushed in the last three months. Most common licenses: MIT (18), Apache-2.0 (6) and GPL-3.0 (5).
New open-source projects
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1
Coloride Color-IDE
A local desktop IDE. Open a folder and edit, run a terminal, and browse on your own machine. Sign-in and the agent are optional.
Complete system Experimental You are on an Apple Silicon Mac and want to follow an early local-first IDE, not rely on it for daily work.
★ 210 MIT TypeScript Active, pushed yesterday -
2
OpenIDEA l0ng-ai
The IDE you know, rebuilt in Rust. IntelliJ IDEA–style keymap, tool windows and search-everywhere in a fast native app: editor, code insight, debugger, Git, terminal, database and HTTP clients for 60+ languages.
Developer tool Experimental You like IntelliJ's way of working and want to experiment with a lighter native alternative.
★ 6.7k Apache-2.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today -
3
Mayoi sorrycc
A small, fast code editor written in Go, with a native GPU-drawn UI (no webview, no Electron)
Complete system Experimental You want a small native editor with Vim keys, git and SSH built in, and accept a very young project.
★ 312 MIT Go Active, pushed today -
4
Eido tony3liu
AI coding agent workspace for macOS, built on Zed and pi. Native code editing and review, browser use, computer use, and global agent access controls.
Complete system Experimental You work on an Apple Silicon Mac and want an editor where an AI agent's changes go through a review step.
★ 251 GPL-3.0 Rust Active, pushed 20 days ago -
5
Rune unstablebuild
a fast, GPU-accelerated, full-featured IDE and terminal multiplexer, suitable both for automatic and manual programming.
Complete system Experimental You want one native app for editing and terminals that works with coding agents and lets you reach your workstation from a laptop.
★ 1.5k GPL-3.0 Go Active, pushed today -
6
AiCode jieapi
在 Android 上运行的 AI 编程 Agent，内置 Linux 终端与代码编辑器，支持 MCP 协议扩展。
Complete system Usable You want to write and build code from an Android phone or tablet, either locally in a container or against a remote server.
★ 373 GPL-3.0 Kotlin Active, pushed today
Open-source code editors
Complete systems you can adopt 8
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1
novelWriter saga-soft
novelWriter is an open source plain text editor designed for writing novels
Complete system Usable You are writing a long work of fiction and want a free, offline alternative to Scrivener that keeps everything in plain text files.
★ 3.2k GPL-3.0 Python Active, pushed today -
2
textarea.my antonmedv
A minimalist text editor that lives in URL
Complete system Usable You want to jot down or share a short note instantly with no account and no server storing it.
★ 2.5k MIT HTML Active, pushed 31 days ago -
3
Rune unstablebuild
a fast, GPU-accelerated, full-featured IDE and terminal multiplexer, suitable both for automatic and manual programming.
Complete system Experimental You want one native app for editing and terminals that works with coding agents and lets you reach your workstation from a laptop.
★ 1.5k GPL-3.0 Go Active, pushed today -
4
AiCode jieapi
在 Android 上运行的 AI 编程 Agent，内置 Linux 终端与代码编辑器，支持 MCP 协议扩展。
Complete system Usable You want to write and build code from an Android phone or tablet, either locally in a container or against a remote server.
★ 373 GPL-3.0 Kotlin Active, pushed today -
5
Mayoi sorrycc
A small, fast code editor written in Go, with a native GPU-drawn UI (no webview, no Electron)
Complete system Experimental You want a small native editor with Vim keys, git and SSH built in, and accept a very young project.
★ 312 MIT Go Active, pushed today -
6
Eido tony3liu
AI coding agent workspace for macOS, built on Zed and pi. Native code editing and review, browser use, computer use, and global agent access controls.
Complete system Experimental You work on an Apple Silicon Mac and want an editor where an AI agent's changes go through a review step.
★ 251 GPL-3.0 Rust Active, pushed 20 days ago -
7
Coloride Color-IDE
A local desktop IDE. Open a folder and edit, run a terminal, and browse on your own machine. Sign-in and the agent are optional.
Complete system Experimental You are on an Apple Silicon Mac and want to follow an early local-first IDE, not rely on it for daily work.
★ 210 MIT TypeScript Active, pushed yesterday -
8
Async IDE x-man-git
IDE, A native-feeling AI coding workspace that blends chat, planning, agent execution, and project navigation into a unified desktop experience.
Complete system Experimental You want a bring-your-own-key, agent-first coding workspace you can read and modify, instead of a VS Code fork.
★ 476 Apache-2.0 TypeScript Slowing, pushed 6 months ago
Building blocks for your own system 5
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1
Slate ianstormtaylor
A completely customizable framework for building rich text editors. (Currently in beta.)
Building block Usable Your product needs a heavily customised in-app editor in React and off-the-shelf editors cannot model your content.
★ 32k MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 8 days ago -
2
Trix basecamp
A rich text editor for everyday writing
Building block Production-ready A Rails or plain web app needs a dependable editor for everyday formatted text, especially through Rails Action Text.
★ 20k MIT JavaScript Active, pushed 9 days ago -
3
PhotoEditor burhanrashid52
A Photo Editor library with simple, easy support for image editing using paints,text,filters,emoji and Sticker like stories.
Building block Usable An Android app needs basic story-style photo editing and you would rather not build the canvas tools yourself.
★ 4.5k MIT Kotlin Active, pushed 39 days ago -
4
React-Ace securingsincity
React Ace Component
Building block Production-ready A React app needs an embedded code editor and you already prefer Ace over Monaco or CodeMirror.
★ 4.2k MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 9 days ago -
5
remirror remirror
ProseMirror toolkit for React 🎉
Building block Usable Only when maintaining an app already built on remirror.
★ 3k MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 10 days ago
Developer tools 24
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1
Visual Studio Code microsoft
Visual Studio Code
Developer tool Production-ready You want the default general-purpose editor that supports nearly every language and tool through extensions.
★ 195k MIT TypeScript Active, pushed today
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2
Neovim neovim
Vim-fork focused on extensibility and usability
Developer tool Production-ready You want modal Vim editing with a modern plugin ecosystem and are willing to build your own setup or start from a distribution like LazyVim.
★ 103k See repository Vim Script Active, pushed today
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3
Zed zed-industries
Code at the speed of thought – Zed is a high-performance, multiplayer code editor from the creators of Atom and Tree-sitter.
Developer tool Production-ready You want a fast native editor with collaborative editing and integrated AI assistance and can manage without some VS Code extensions.
★ 93k See repository Rust Active, pushed today
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4
Helix helix-editor
A post-modern modal text editor.
Developer tool Production-ready You want modal editing with language features working out of the box, without assembling a Neovim plugin setup.
★ 47k MPL-2.0 Rust Active, pushed 37 days ago -
5
Vim vim
The official Vim repository
Developer tool Production-ready You edit files on servers where it is already installed, or prefer a stable modal editor that changes slowly.
★ 41k Vim Vim Script Active, pushed today
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6
Lapce lapce
Lightning-fast and Powerful Code Editor written in Rust
Developer tool Experimental You want to try a native, fast alternative to VS Code and can live with a smaller plugin ecosystem.
★ 39k Apache-2.0 Rust Active, pushed 28 days ago -
7
micro micro-editor
A modern and intuitive terminal-based text editor
Developer tool Production-ready You want an easy successor to nano for editing files over SSH, without learning a modal editor.
★ 30k MIT Go Active, pushed yesterday -
8
CodeEdit CodeEditApp
📝 CodeEdit App for macOS – Elevate your code editing experience. Open source, free forever.
Developer tool Experimental You are on a Mac and want to follow or contribute to a native, open-source editor in the spirit of Xcode.
★ 23k MIT Swift Active, pushed 19 days ago -
9
Edit microsoft
We all edit.
Developer tool Usable You need a simple editor in a Windows terminal or want one that people unfamiliar with terminals can use straight away.
★ 15k MIT Rust Active, pushed 3 days ago -
10
Kakoune mawww
mawww's experiment for a better code editor
Developer tool Usable You like modal editing and want multiple selections at the centre of it, with a small core you extend through Unix tools.
★ 11k Unlicense C++ Active, pushed 6 days ago -
11
Terax crynta
Lightweight (7MB) terminal-first AI-native development environment
Developer tool Experimental You want a lightweight terminal-first workspace for working with AI coding agents and are happy to try very new software.
★ 9.4k Apache-2.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today -
12
Fresh sinelaw
Terminal based IDE & text editor: easy, powerful and fast
Developer tool Experimental You want IDE-style editing in the terminal without learning Vim or Emacs keys and accept a young tool.
★ 9.4k GPL-3.0 Rust Active, pushed today -
13
Acode Acode-Foundation
Acode - powerful text/code editor for android/ios
Developer tool Usable You need to write or fix code on a phone or tablet, for example small web projects away from a computer.
★ 7.7k MIT JavaScript Active, pushed 6 days ago -
14
OpenIDEA l0ng-ai
The IDE you know, rebuilt in Rust. IntelliJ IDEA–style keymap, tool windows and search-everywhere in a fast native app: editor, code insight, debugger, Git, terminal, database and HTTP clients for 60+ languages.
Developer tool Experimental You like IntelliJ's way of working and want to experiment with a lighter native alternative.
★ 6.7k Apache-2.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today -
15
Lite XL lite-xl
A lightweight text editor written in Lua
Developer tool Usable You want a minimal graphical editor that starts instantly and is easy to customise in Lua, even on old hardware.
★ 6.5k MIT Lua Active, pushed 2 days ago -
16
Geany geany
A fast and lightweight IDE
Developer tool Production-ready You want a light graphical IDE that runs well on older or low-power Linux machines.
★ 3.8k GPL-2.0 C Active, pushed 4 days ago -
17
CudaText Alexey-T
Cross-platform text editor, written in Free Pascal
Developer tool Usable You want a fast native editor similar to Sublime Text that is free and runs on Windows, Linux, macOS and BSD.
★ 3.2k MPL-2.0 Python Active, pushed today -
18
SideX Sidenai
VS Code rebuilt on Tauri. Same architecture, 96% smaller. Early release.
Developer tool Experimental You want to experiment with a lighter VS Code build and are not depending on it for daily work.
★ 3.2k MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 2 months ago -
19
Apache NetBeans apache
Apache NetBeans
Developer tool Production-ready You develop in Java and want a free, Apache-governed IDE, or maintain Swing desktop apps built on the NetBeans Platform.
★ 3.1k Apache-2.0 Java Active, pushed today -
20
Athas athasdev
A lightweight, cross-platform code editor, built with Tauri (Rust and React) with Git support, AI agents, vim keybindings.
Developer tool Experimental You want to try a lightweight editor with built-in AI agents and Vim keys and are comfortable with a young project.
★ 3.1k AGPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today -
21
Lem lem-project
General-purpose editor/IDE with high expansibility in Common Lisp
Developer tool Usable You program in Common Lisp and want an editor written in and extended with the same language.
★ 3.1k MIT Common Lisp Active, pushed 2 days ago -
22
Web-Maker chinchang
A blazing fast & offline frontend code editor
Developer tool Usable You want to sketch front-end ideas quickly without an internet connection or a CodePen account.
★ 2.7k MIT JavaScript Active, pushed 17 days ago -
23
Flow Control neurocyte
Flow Control: a programmer's text editor
Developer tool Experimental You want a fast terminal editor with GUI-like conveniences and enjoy trying newer tools.
★ 2.5k MIT Zig Active, pushed today -
24
Podium madeinorbit
Podium is an ADE with built-in cross-harness subagents and agent communication. It runs on desktop, mobile and VPS.
Developer tool Experimental You run several coding agents at once and want them coordinated from one place, including from your phone.
★ 45 Apache-2.0 TypeScript Active, pushed yesterday
Compared head to head
Open-source licenses
- Permissive: 24. Use it anywhere, including in closed products. You keep the copyright notice; Apache-2.0 also grants patent rights.
- Strong copyleft: 6. If you distribute the program or anything built on it, you must release the whole source under the same license.
- Weak copyleft: 3. Changes to the licensed files must be shared, but you can link them into a closed program.
- Public domain: 1. No conditions at all. You can copy, change and sell the code without even keeping the notice.
- Network copyleft: 1. Like GPL, and running a changed version as a web service counts as distributing it, so its users get the source too.
Languages
TypeScript 11, Rust 6, Go 3, JavaScript 3, Vim Script 2, Kotlin 2, Python 2, Swift 1, C++ 1, Lua 1, C 1, Java 1, Common Lisp 1, HTML 1 and Zig 1.
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