head to head · open source
Avalonia vs Helium
Avalonia has 31,517 GitHub stars, 2,826 forks, 1,875 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Helium has 20,739 stars, 579 forks, 490 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Avalonia leads on adoption by 52% (31,517 vs 20,739 stars). Avalonia is written in C# under MIT; Helium is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. Avalonia has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Helium 3%. Helium 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
| Avalonia | Helium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 21K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C# | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.8K | ⑂ 579 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Avalonia if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Helium if
- You want the Helium feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and Helium fits your workflow better
About Avalonia
Avalonia is a cross platform UI framework for .NET, written in C and driven by XAML. It provides a flexible styling system and targets a wide range of platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and WebAssembly. The project is mature and production ready, and it is used by companies such as Schneider Electric, Unity, JetBrains and GitHub. It lives in the .NET ecosystem and is distributed through the NuGet package manager.
read the full Avalonia overview →
About Helium
Helium is an open source desktop web browser built around the Chromium project. It lives in the Chromium browser ecosystem and is published as a C++ project under the GPL 3.0 license, with imported code retaining its original license. The project describes itself as private, fast, and honest, and as a privacy first browser with ad blocking and no bloat.
read the full Helium overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Avalonia or Helium more popular?
Avalonia has 31,517 GitHub stars and Helium has 20,739. Avalonia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Avalonia and Helium free?
Both are open source. Avalonia is licensed under MIT and Helium under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Avalonia and Helium?
Avalonia is written in C# and Helium in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Avalonia or Helium?
Choose Avalonia if you want the larger community (31,517 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Helium if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.