head to head · open source
Bruno vs serenity-js
Bruno has 47,022 GitHub stars, 2,888 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. serenity-js has 616 stars, 152 forks, 88 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Bruno leads on adoption by 7,533% (47,022 vs 616 stars). Bruno is written in JavaScript under MIT; serenity-js is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Bruno has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, serenity-js 25%. Bruno was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (api-testing), 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
| Bruno | serenity-js | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 616 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 152 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Bruno if
- You weight community size — 47K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick serenity-js if
- You want the serenity-js feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and serenity-js fits your workflow better
About Bruno
Bruno is a lightweight, open source API client and IDE for exploring and testing APIs, built for developers and teams who want their request collections stored as plain text in a folder on their own filesystem rather than in a vendor's cloud.
read the full Bruno overview →
About serenity-js
Serenity/JS is a TypeScript native acceptance testing framework that gives an existing Playwright Test, WebdriverIO, or Cucumber suite the Screenplay Pattern's architecture, and it is built for test automation teams whose end to end and API suites have outgrown duplicated selectors, unreadable reports, and tool lock in.
read the full serenity-js overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Bruno or serenity-js more popular?
Bruno has 47,022 GitHub stars and serenity-js has 616. Bruno has the larger community by that measure.
Are Bruno and serenity-js free?
Both are open source. Bruno is licensed under MIT and serenity-js under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Bruno and serenity-js?
Bruno is written in JavaScript and serenity-js 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, Bruno or serenity-js?
Choose Bruno if you want the larger community (47,022 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose serenity-js if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.