head to head · open source
Helium vs Thorium-Win
Helium has 22,337 GitHub stars, 683 forks, 490 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Thorium-Win has 2,562 stars, 55 forks, 25 open issues and last shipped 25 days ago. Helium leads on adoption by 772% (22,337 vs 2,562 stars). Helium is written in C++ under GPL-3.0; Thorium-Win is written in Batchfile under BSD-3-Clause. Helium has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, Thorium-Win 2%. Helium was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (chromium, web-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
| Helium | Thorium-Win | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 22K | ★ 2.6K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | C++ | Batchfile |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 683 | ⑂ 55 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Helium if
- You weight community size — 22K 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 Thorium-Win if
- You want the Thorium-Win feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Batchfile
- You evaluated both and Thorium-Win fits your workflow better
About Helium
Helium The Chromium based web browser made for people, with love. Privacy first with unbiased ad blocking. No bloat and no noise. helium.computer Downloads [!NOTE] Helium is currently in beta, so unexpected issues may occur. Please report them if they haven't already been reported. The easiest way to download Helium is helium.computer. It'll pick a compatible binary for your platform automatically. The same releases can also be downloaded from source on GitHub: Latest macOS release Latest Linux release Latest Windows release Helium repos All Helium packaging, tooling, services, and components are open source and…
read the full Helium overview →
About Thorium-Win
Thorium for Windows Repo to serve Windows builds of Thorium! \ IMPORTANT: PLEASE USE THE NEW WINDOWS 7/8 REPO HERE FOR WINDOWS 7/8/8.1 RELEASES \ NEW: AVX2 Builds are now being served at This repo only hosts Windows builds. The other Thorium repos : Main repo that hosts the source code for all platforms and serves linux builds Windows AVX2 repo that serves AVX2 Windows builds MacOS builds for x64 and M1 ARM64 are here \ Android builds for ARM32 and ARM64 are here \ Raspberry Pi (ARM64) builds are here \ Builds for Windows 7/8/8.1 are here \ Windows on ARM (arm64) builds are here \ Special repo which serves…
read the full Thorium-Win overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Helium or Thorium-Win more popular?
Helium has 22,337 GitHub stars and Thorium-Win has 2,562. Helium has the larger community by that measure.
Are Helium and Thorium-Win free?
Both are open source. Helium is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Thorium-Win under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Helium and Thorium-Win?
Helium is written in C++ and Thorium-Win in Batchfile. 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 Thorium-Win?
Choose Helium if you want the larger community (22,337 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Thorium-Win if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.