head to head · open source
Brave vs thorium
Brave has 23,659 GitHub stars, 3,214 forks, 10,752 open issues and last shipped yesterday. thorium has 7,508 stars, 283 forks, 140 open issues and last shipped 26 days ago. Brave leads on adoption by 215% (23,659 vs 7,508 stars). Brave is written in various languages under MPL-2.0; thorium is written in C++ under BSD-3-Clause. Brave has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, thorium 4%. Brave was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Brave | thorium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 7.5K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | — | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 283 |
| 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 thorium if
- You want the thorium feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and thorium 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 thorium
Thorium is a BSD 3 Clause licensed Chromium fork, written in C++ and named after radioactive element No. 90, that ships optimised Linux builds here while Windows, macOS, Android and Raspberry Pi builds live in companion repositories.
read the full thorium 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 Brave or thorium more popular?
Brave has 23,659 GitHub stars and thorium has 7,508. Brave has the larger community by that measure.
Are Brave and thorium free?
Both are open source. Brave is licensed under MPL-2.0 and thorium under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Brave and thorium?
Brave is written in various languages and thorium 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 thorium?
Choose Brave if you want the larger community (23,659 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose thorium if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.