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Zed

★ 88k

High-performance Rust-native editor with built-in AI agents and collaborative editing

Zed does the job of Cursor and JetBrains AI, self-hosted. It is AGPL-licensed, so a hosted fork has to publish its changes, and it installs in about one command. Cursor bills $20 for it. 88k stars on GitHub.

Open-source replacement for Cursor, JetBrains AI.

Licence
GPL-3.0/AGPL
Self-hosting
Easy
The paid one costs
$20
GitHub stars
88k
view the code →official site →

Is it actually a replacement?

We have written a verdict on what it replaces — what you lose, and why people still pay:

How Zed runs

Where it runs

Zed runs on on your machine.

Installing it

Direct desktop download, Homebrew, winget or install script.

Where your data lives

Source files stay local; provider keys use the system keychain, while AI prompts and code context go to the selected provider or local model.

What setup takes

Editor installation is clean; AI needs a Zed account, provider subscription or key, gateway, or local model, and platform hardware support varies.

The catch compared with Cursor

It requires changing editors and still has a smaller extension ecosystem and less mature AI autocomplete and indexing workflow than Cursor.

Zed questions

Is Zed open source?

Yes — it is released under GPL-3.0/AGPL.

Can Zed replace Cursor?

Our verdict on Cursor is YES. OpenCode (194k stars), Zed (88k stars), Cline (66k stars) are mature open-source replacements for Cursor — self-host in one command and stop paying $20/mo.

Can I self-host Zed?

Yes — we rate it easy to self-host, and it runs on on your machine. Direct desktop download, Homebrew, winget or install script.

Does Zed run locally?

Yes — it runs on your own machine rather than on a server, so your data stays on your disk.

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