head to head · open source
compose vs donutbrowser
compose has 38,178 GitHub stars, 5,818 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped yesterday. donutbrowser has 3,855 stars, 411 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. compose leads on adoption by 890% (38,178 vs 3,855 stars). compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0; donutbrowser is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. compose has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, donutbrowser 11%. compose was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (orchestration), 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| compose | donutbrowser | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 411 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick compose if
- You weight community size — 38K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick donutbrowser if
- You want the donutbrowser feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and donutbrowser fits your workflow better
About compose
Docker Compose is an Apache 2.0 licensed Go tool that defines and runs multi container applications on Docker from a single Compose file, aimed at developers and operators who need several containers to start together as one isolated application.
read the full compose overview →
About donutbrowser
Donut Browser Open Source Anti Detect Browser donutbrowser.com Features Unlimited browser profiles: each fully isolated with its own fingerprint, cookies, extensions, and data Anti detect Chromium engine: powered by Wayfern, a privacy focused Chromium fork whose fingerprint spoofing is not detected by Cloudflare, reCaptcha v3, or other browser fingerprinting and anti bot services DNS AdBlocker: block ads, trackers, and other unwanted content with per profile DNS blocking Proxy support: HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS4, SOCKS5 per profile, with dynamic proxy URLs VPN support: WireGuard configs per profile Local API & MCP: REST…
read the full donutbrowser overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Orchestration & Scheduling projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Orchestration & Scheduling field.
Frequently asked questions
Is compose or donutbrowser more popular?
compose has 38,178 GitHub stars and donutbrowser has 3,855. compose has the larger community by that measure.
Are compose and donutbrowser free?
Both are open source. compose is licensed under Apache-2.0 and donutbrowser under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between compose and donutbrowser?
compose is written in Go and donutbrowser in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, compose or donutbrowser?
Choose compose if you want the larger community (38,178 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose donutbrowser if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.