head to head · open source
cap vs waterfox
cap has 24,271 GitHub stars, 2,234 forks, 339 open issues and last shipped yesterday. waterfox has 6,344 stars, 438 forks, 332 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. cap leads on adoption by 283% (24,271 vs 6,344 stars). cap is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; waterfox is written in JavaScript under a custom or non-standard licence. cap has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, waterfox 7%. cap was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| cap | waterfox | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 6.3K |
| License | Custom / other | Custom / other |
| Written in | Rust | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 438 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick cap if
- You weight community size — 24K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick waterfox if
- You want the waterfox feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and waterfox fits your workflow better
About cap
Cap Beautiful, shareable screen recordings. Open source, fast, and built for teams that want to own their data. Website Download Docs Pricing Discord Cap is the open source alternative to Loom. It gives you fast screen recording, polished local editing, instant share links, comments, transcripts, analytics, team workspaces, custom domains, custom S3 storage, and full self hosting when you need complete control. Use Cap for product demos, bug reports, onboarding, tutorials, design reviews, engineering walkthroughs, async standups, client updates, and any moment where showing the work is faster than scheduling…
About waterfox
Waterfox Waterfox is a customisable browser based on Mozilla Firefox. This repository contains Mozilla platform code, Waterfox product code, branding, features, packaging, and release files. Building Waterfox uses the Mozilla build system. The usual ./mach entry points apply: Contributing Most Firefox development documentation still applies to this tree. Use the Firefox Source Docs for the shared Mozilla build system, testing tools, and platform code. Resources Waterfox website Firefox Source Docs
read the full waterfox overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is cap or waterfox more popular?
cap has 24,271 GitHub stars and waterfox has 6,344. cap has the larger community by that measure.
Are cap and waterfox free?
Neither cap nor waterfox declares a licence in this registry, so check each project's own repository before relying on either for a commercial use. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between cap and waterfox?
cap is written in Rust and waterfox in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, cap or waterfox?
Choose cap if you want the larger community (24,271 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose waterfox if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.