head to head · open source
Ladybird vs feathers
Ladybird has 66,237 GitHub stars, 3,163 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. feathers has 15,263 stars, 798 forks, 121 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Ladybird leads on adoption by 334% (66,237 vs 15,263 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; feathers is written in TypeScript under MIT. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, feathers 5%. Ladybird 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
| Ladybird | feathers | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 15K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 798 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Ladybird if
- You weight community size — 66K 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 feathers if
- You want the feathers feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and feathers fits your workflow better
About Ladybird
Ladybird is a truly independent web browser and browser engine, written from scratch in C++ rather than as a fork of any existing engine, and it is built for developers who want to work on a browser engine based on web standards while it remains in a pre alpha state.
read the full Ladybird overview →
About feathers
Feathers is a full stack framework for creating web APIs and real time applications with TypeScript or JavaScript. It lives in the Node.js and npm ecosystem, and it is published as a set of packages, with the core available as @feathersjs/feathers . The project has existed for roughly 15 years and is maintained under the MIT license by its contributors.
read the full feathers overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or feathers more popular?
Ladybird has 66,237 GitHub stars and feathers has 15,263. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and feathers free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and feathers under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and feathers?
Ladybird is written in C++ and feathers in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Ladybird or feathers?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,237 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose feathers if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.