head to head · open source
BrowserOS vs Flow
BrowserOS has 13,718 GitHub stars, 1,459 forks, 82 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Flow has 1,076 stars, 61 forks, 59 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. BrowserOS leads on adoption by 1,175% (13,718 vs 1,076 stars). BrowserOS is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Flow is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. BrowserOS has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Flow 6%. BrowserOS 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
| BrowserOS | Flow | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 14K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-05-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 61 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick BrowserOS if
- You weight community size — 14K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Flow if
- You want the Flow feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Flow fits your workflow better
About BrowserOS
BrowserOS is an open source agentic browser, written in TypeScript under AGPL 3.0, that puts AI agents inside a real Chromium browser on the user's own machine so they can work with real logged in accounts, and it is aimed at people who already use an agent harness such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or any MCP agent and want that agent to handle web tasks instead of a sandbox.
read the full BrowserOS overview →
About Flow
Flow Browser is a free, GPL 3.0 licensed desktop web browser built on Electron and Chromium, written in TypeScript, that runs Chrome extensions from the Chrome Web Store and is aimed at people who want a minimal, privacy focused alternative to mainstream browsers.
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Frequently asked questions
Is BrowserOS or Flow more popular?
BrowserOS has 13,718 GitHub stars and Flow has 1,076. BrowserOS has the larger community by that measure.
Are BrowserOS and Flow free?
Both are open source. BrowserOS is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Flow under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between BrowserOS and Flow?
BrowserOS is written in TypeScript and Flow in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, BrowserOS or Flow?
Choose BrowserOS if you want the larger community (13,718 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Flow if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.