GNU Emacs vs Neovim
GNU Emacs
gnu.orgNeovim
neovim.ioSide by side
| Figure | GNU Emacs | Neovim |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Text Editors | 9.0 (#4) | 9.1 (#1) |
| Spec score · Go IDEs | 8.8 (#2) | 8.6 (#4) |
| Spec score · Code editors | 8.9 (#4) | 9.0 (#3) |
| Spec score · Editor Software | 8.7 (#4) | 8.6 (#7) |
| Column editing | Yes | Yes |
| Extension support | Yes | Yes |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Large-file handling | Yes | Yes |
| License | GNU Emacs is free software distributed under conditions of the GNU General Public License. | Neovim is licensed under Apache 2.0 except for parts contributed under the Vim license. |
| Macro recording | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-cursor editing | Yes | Yes |
| Supported platforms | GNU/Linux, BSDs, Haiku, Windows, macOS, and Android. | Linux,macOS,Windows,Android |
Plans
In their own words
Neovim
Neovim is a free, Vim-based text editor built for extensibility and usability. It keeps Vim’s editing model and Vimscript v1 support, while configuration lives in init.lua and users can create Lua plugins. Its documented, versioned API and RPC let developers build extensions in many languages; GUIs, IDEs, and web browsers can also embed Neovim. Tree-sitter supports syntax highlighting and text objects, and built-in language-server support provides semantic code inspection and refactoring. Editing tools include multicursor command replay, macro recording, column editing, and large-file handling. A built-in terminal includes modern terminal features. Neovim supports Vim 8.x plugins and more. Stable downloads are listed for Linux, macOS, and Windows, with x86_64 and arm64 builds for each. Windows 8 or newer is required; Windows 7 and older are unsupported. It is licensed under Apache 2.0, with exceptions for parts contributed under the Vim license. Community support is available through GitHub Discussions and vi.stackexchange.com.