head to head · open source
compose vs donutbrowser
compose has 38,195 GitHub stars, 5,825 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. donutbrowser has 3,861 stars, 410 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped yesterday. compose leads on adoption by 889% (38,195 vs 3,861 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%. donutbrowser 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.
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Side by side
| compose | donutbrowser | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 410 |
| 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 is a free, open source anti detect browser written in Rust for anyone who needs many fully isolated browser identities — each with its own fingerprint, cookies, extensions, proxy, and VPN — running from one desktop install, and for the automation engineers and teams who script or sync those profiles.
read the full donutbrowser overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or donutbrowser more popular?
compose has 38,195 GitHub stars and donutbrowser has 3,861. 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 (38,195 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.