head to head · open source
Ladybird vs brownies
Ladybird has 66,648 GitHub stars, 3,173 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. brownies has 2,564 stars, 61 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ladybird leads on adoption by 2,499% (66,648 vs 2,564 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; brownies is written in TypeScript under MIT. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, brownies 2%. 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 | brownies | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 67K | ★ 2.6K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-24 | 2026-10-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 61 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Ladybird if
- You weight community size — 67K 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 brownies if
- You want the brownies feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and brownies fits your workflow better
About Ladybird
Ladybird Ladybird is a truly independent web browser, using a novel engine based on web standards. [!IMPORTANT] Ladybird is in a pre alpha state, and only suitable for use by developers Features We aim to build a complete, usable browser for the modern web. Ladybird uses a multi process architecture with a main UI process, several WebContent renderer processes, an ImageDecoder process, and a RequestServer process. Image decoding and network connections are done out of process to be more robust against malicious content. Each tab has its own renderer process, which is sandboxed from the rest of the system. At the…
read the full Ladybird overview →
About brownies
Brownies Tastier cookies , local , session , and db storage in a tiny package: Subscribe to changes in any of the objects: You can also iterate them as expected with Object.keys() , Object.values() , etc: Getting started Install it with npm: Then import the different parts: Or use a CDN for the browser: If you just want to play, go to the JSFiddle playground . Cookies Manipulate cookies with the simple getter/setter interface: Cookies will retain the types that is set. This is possible thanks to the underlying library: Warning: Manually setting cookies with document.cookie or server side [click for details]…
read the full brownies overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or brownies more popular?
Ladybird has 66,648 GitHub stars and brownies has 2,564. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and brownies free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and brownies under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and brownies?
Ladybird is written in C++ and brownies 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 brownies?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,648 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose brownies if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.