head to head · open source
Brave vs buster
Brave has 23,659 GitHub stars, 3,214 forks, 10,752 open issues and last shipped yesterday. buster has 9,302 stars, 694 forks, 50 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Brave leads on adoption by 154% (23,659 vs 9,302 stars). Brave is written in various languages under MPL-2.0; buster is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. Brave has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, buster 7%. Brave 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
| Brave | buster | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 9.3K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | — | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-06-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 694 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Brave if
- You weight community size — 24K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick buster if
- You want the buster feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and buster fits your workflow better
About Brave
Brave is a Chromium based web browser for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, released under the MPL 2.0 licence, and this repository is the project's public issue tracker, release channel, and developer wiki rather than the home of its source code.
read the full Brave overview →
About buster
Buster is a free, open source browser extension for Chrome, Edge and Firefox that helps people solve difficult CAPTCHA challenges by completing reCAPTCHA audio challenges with speech recognition, and it is intended for ordinary human users rather than automation operators.
read the full buster overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Brave or buster more popular?
Brave has 23,659 GitHub stars and buster has 9,302. Brave has the larger community by that measure.
Are Brave and buster free?
Both are open source. Brave is licensed under MPL-2.0 and buster under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Brave and buster?
Brave is written in various languages and buster in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Brave or buster?
Choose Brave if you want the larger community (23,659 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose buster if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.