head to head · open source
Helium vs fingerprint-chromium
Helium has 20,799 GitHub stars, 587 forks, 490 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. fingerprint-chromium has 3,053 stars, 438 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Helium leads on adoption by 581% (20,799 vs 3,053 stars). Helium is written in C++ under GPL-3.0; fingerprint-chromium is written in various languages under BSD-3-Clause. Helium has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, fingerprint-chromium 14%. Helium was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (browser, chromium, privacy), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Helium | fingerprint-chromium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | C++ | — |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-06-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 587 | ⑂ 438 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Helium if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick fingerprint-chromium if
- You want the fingerprint-chromium feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- You evaluated both and fingerprint-chromium fits your workflow better
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 →
About fingerprint-chromium
fingerprint chromium is an open source fingerprint browser based on Ungoogled Chromium, distributed as prebuilt browser binaries for Windows, Linux, and macOS, and aimed at anyone who needs to control the fingerprint their browser presents to a website — anti bot testing, anti detection research, scraping, and privacy work.
read the full fingerprint-chromium overview →
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More Browsers & Extensions projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Browsers & Extensions field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Helium or fingerprint-chromium more popular?
Helium has 20,799 GitHub stars and fingerprint-chromium has 3,053. Helium has the larger community by that measure.
Are Helium and fingerprint-chromium free?
Both are open source. Helium is licensed under GPL-3.0 and fingerprint-chromium under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Helium and fingerprint-chromium?
Helium is written in C++ and fingerprint-chromium in various languages. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Helium or fingerprint-chromium?
Choose Helium if you want the larger community (20,799 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose fingerprint-chromium if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.