head to head · open source
serenity vs ego-lite
serenity has 33,938 GitHub stars, 3,488 forks, 739 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ego-lite has 21,332 stars, 1,193 forks, 169 open issues and last shipped yesterday. serenity leads on adoption by 59% (33,938 vs 21,332 stars). serenity is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; ego-lite is written in JavaScript under MIT. serenity has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, ego-lite 6%. serenity was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (browser), 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
| serenity | ego-lite | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 21K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick serenity if
- You weight community size — 34K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ego-lite if
- You want the ego-lite feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and ego-lite fits your workflow better
About serenity
SerenityOS Graphical Unix like operating system for 64 bit x86, Arm, and RISC V computers. FAQ Documentation Build Instructions About SerenityOS is a love letter to '90s user interfaces with a custom Unix like core. It flatters with sincerity by stealing beautiful ideas from various other systems. Roughly speaking, the goal is a marriage between the aesthetic of late 1990s productivity software and the power user accessibility of late 2000s \ nix. This is a system by us, for us, based on the things we like. You can watch videos of the system being developed on YouTube: Andreas Kling's channel Linus Groh's…
read the full serenity overview →
About ego-lite
The fastest browser for AI agents to run browser automation ego (lite) is a browser where you and your AI agents work in parallel. Your agents run multiple browser tasks in their own Spaces while your tabs stay yours, and tasks complete faster on fewer tokens. Existing tools like browser use and agent browser are browser automation frameworks: they need a separate browser to drive, logins never carry cleanly, and you and the agent end up fighting for the same tabs. ego lite is one browser designed from the start for the two of you to share. No extra setup, and the agent can always reach your real logins and tabs…
read the full ego-lite overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is serenity or ego-lite more popular?
serenity has 33,938 GitHub stars and ego-lite has 21,332. serenity has the larger community by that measure.
Are serenity and ego-lite free?
Both are open source. serenity is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and ego-lite under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between serenity and ego-lite?
serenity is written in C++ and ego-lite 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, serenity or ego-lite?
Choose serenity if you want the larger community (33,938 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose ego-lite if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.