head to head · open source
chromium vs Brave
chromium has 24,824 GitHub stars, 9,251 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Brave has 23,676 stars, 3,216 forks, 10,752 open issues and last shipped yesterday. chromium leads on adoption by 5% (24,824 vs 23,676 stars). chromium is written in various languages under BSD-3-Clause; Brave is written in various languages under MPL-2.0. chromium has attracted 37% as many forks as stars, Brave 14%. chromium 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
| chromium | Brave | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 24K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | — | — |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.3K | ⑂ 3.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick chromium if
- You weight community size — 25K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- 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 chromium
The official GitHub mirror of the Chromium source — read only snapshot of the codebase behind the Chromium open source browser project, aimed at developers and packagers who need to read, build, or audit browser source rather than end users looking for a browser download.
read the full chromium 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 chromium or Brave more popular?
chromium has 24,824 GitHub stars and Brave has 23,676. chromium has the larger community by that measure.
Are chromium and Brave free?
Both are open source. chromium is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Brave under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between chromium and Brave?
chromium is written in various languages 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, chromium or Brave?
Choose chromium if you want the larger community (24,824 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose Brave if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.