head to head · open source
uBlock vs Brave
uBlock has 67,923 GitHub stars, 4,353 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Brave has 23,659 stars, 3,214 forks, 10,752 open issues and last shipped yesterday. uBlock leads on adoption by 187% (67,923 vs 23,659 stars). uBlock is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0; Brave is written in various languages under MPL-2.0. uBlock has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Brave 14%. uBlock 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.
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Side by side
| uBlock | Brave | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 68K | ★ 24K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | — |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 3.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick uBlock if
- You weight community size — 68K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- 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 uBlock
uBlock Origin is a CPU and memory efficient, wide spectrum content blocker for Chromium and Firefox, aimed at anyone who wants ads, trackers, coin miners, popups, anti blockers and malware sites neutralised by default without hand tuning anything.
read the full uBlock 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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is uBlock or Brave more popular?
uBlock has 67,923 GitHub stars and Brave has 23,659. uBlock has the larger community by that measure.
Are uBlock and Brave free?
Both are open source. uBlock is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Brave under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between uBlock and Brave?
uBlock is written in JavaScript 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, uBlock or Brave?
Choose uBlock if you want the larger community (67,923 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Brave if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.