head to head · open source
Zen Browser vs feathers
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars, 1,946 forks, 689 open issues and last shipped yesterday. feathers has 15,256 stars, 802 forks, 121 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Zen Browser leads on adoption by 198% (45,517 vs 15,256 stars). Zen Browser is written in C++ under MPL-2.0; feathers is written in TypeScript under MIT. Zen Browser has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, feathers 5%. Zen Browser was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Zen Browser | feathers | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 15K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 802 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Zen Browser if
- You weight community size — 46K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 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 Zen Browser
Zen Browser Zen is a firefox based browser with the aim of pushing your productivity to a new level! Download • Website • Documentation • Release Notes Firefox Versions Release Is currently built using Firefox version 155.0.1 ! Twilight Is currently built using Firefox version RC 155.0.1 ! Contributing If you'd like to report a bug, please do so on our GitHub Issues page and for feature requests, you can use GitHub Discussions. Zen is an open source project, and we welcome contributions from the community! Please take a look at the contribution guidelines before getting started! Partners Thanks to all the…
read the full Zen Browser overview →
About feathers
Feathers is a full stack framework for creating web APIs and real time applications with TypeScript or JavaScript. Feathers can interact with any backend technology, supports many databases out of the box and works with any frontend like React, VueJS, Angular, React Native, Android or iOS. Getting started Get started with just three commands: To learn more about Feathers visit the website at feathersjs.com or jump right into the Feathers guides. Contributing To start developing, clone this repository, then run: To run all tests run Individual tests can be run in the module you are working on: License Copyright…
read the full feathers overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zen Browser or feathers more popular?
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars and feathers has 15,256. Zen Browser has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zen Browser and feathers free?
Both are open source. Zen Browser is licensed under MPL-2.0 and feathers under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zen Browser and feathers?
Zen Browser 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, Zen Browser or feathers?
Choose Zen Browser if you want the larger community (45,517 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose feathers if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.