head to head · open source
serenity vs Brave
serenity has 33,840 GitHub stars, 3,541 forks, 739 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Brave has 23,659 stars, 3,214 forks, 10,752 open issues and last shipped yesterday. serenity leads on adoption by 43% (33,840 vs 23,659 stars). serenity is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; Brave is written in various languages under MPL-2.0. serenity has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Brave 14%. Brave was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (browser), 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| serenity | Brave | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 24K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | — |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 3.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick serenity if
- You weight community size — 34K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Brave if
- You want the Brave feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- You evaluated both and Brave fits your workflow better
About serenity
SerenityOS is a graphical Unix like operating system built for 64 bit x86, Arm, and RISC V computers. It is written in C++ and released under the BSD 2 Clause license, and it lives in the open source operating system ecosystem alongside other hobbyist and research kernels. The project describes itself as a love letter to 1990s user interfaces paired with a custom Unix like core, aiming for a marriage between the aesthetic of late 1990s productivity software and the power user accessibility of late 2000s Unix systems.
read the full serenity overview →
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 →
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More Browsers & Extensions projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Browsers & Extensions field.
Frequently asked questions
Is serenity or Brave more popular?
serenity has 33,840 GitHub stars and Brave has 23,659. serenity has the larger community by that measure.
Are serenity and Brave free?
Both are open source. serenity is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Brave under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between serenity and Brave?
serenity is written in C++ and Brave in various languages. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, serenity or Brave?
Choose serenity if you want the larger community (33,840 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose Brave if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.