head to head · open source
slate vs BrowserOS
slate has 31,748 GitHub stars, 3,302 forks, 653 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. BrowserOS has 13,718 stars, 1,459 forks, 82 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. slate leads on adoption by 131% (31,748 vs 13,718 stars). slate is written in TypeScript under MIT; BrowserOS is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. slate has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, BrowserOS 11%. BrowserOS 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.
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Side by side
| slate | BrowserOS | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 14K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-13 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick slate if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick BrowserOS if
- You want the BrowserOS feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and BrowserOS fits your workflow better
About slate
Slate is a completely customizable framework for building rich text editors, written in TypeScript and released under the MIT licence, for JavaScript and React developers who need an editor that goes well past what a fixed schema can offer.
read the full slate overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is slate or BrowserOS more popular?
slate has 31,748 GitHub stars and BrowserOS has 13,718. slate has the larger community by that measure.
Are slate and BrowserOS free?
Both are open source. slate is licensed under MIT and BrowserOS under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between slate and BrowserOS?
slate is written in TypeScript and BrowserOS 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, slate or BrowserOS?
Choose slate if you want the larger community (31,748 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose BrowserOS if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.