head to head · open source
Brave vs Helium
Brave has 24,097 GitHub stars, 3,270 forks, 10,752 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Helium has 22,337 stars, 683 forks, 490 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Brave leads on adoption by 8% (24,097 vs 22,337 stars). Brave is written in various languages under MPL-2.0; Helium is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. Brave has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, Helium 3%. Brave was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (browser, chromium), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | Helium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 22K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | — | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 683 |
| 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 Helium if
- You want the Helium feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and Helium fits your workflow better
About Brave
Brave Browser This repository is not needed for building the browser and only holds issues, releases and the wiki. The source code and contributions are at You can visit our website to get the latest stable release. Resources Issues: Bug reports and feature requests for the Brave Browser. Releases: Releases of Brave Browser hosted on GitHub. See Brave Release Schedule for more information. Wiki: Documentation for developers, administrators, and power users. User facing documentation is available at the Brave help center. Documentation and guides: Additional technical information, primarily for developers…
read the full Brave overview →
About Helium
Helium The Chromium based web browser made for people, with love. Privacy first with unbiased ad blocking. No bloat and no noise. helium.computer Downloads [!NOTE] Helium is currently in beta, so unexpected issues may occur. Please report them if they haven't already been reported. The easiest way to download Helium is helium.computer. It'll pick a compatible binary for your platform automatically. The same releases can also be downloaded from source on GitHub: Latest macOS release Latest Linux release Latest Windows release Helium repos All Helium packaging, tooling, services, and components are open source and…
read the full Helium overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Brave or Helium more popular?
Brave has 24,097 GitHub stars and Helium has 22,337. Brave has the larger community by that measure.
Are Brave and Helium free?
Both are open source. Brave is licensed under MPL-2.0 and Helium under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Brave and Helium?
Brave is written in various languages and Helium in C++. 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 Helium?
Choose Brave if you want the larger community (24,097 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose Helium if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.