head to head · open source
Ladybird vs browserify
Ladybird has 66,248 GitHub stars, 3,163 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. browserify has 14,695 stars, 1,202 forks, 387 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ladybird leads on adoption by 351% (66,248 vs 14,695 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; browserify is written in JavaScript under MIT. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, browserify 8%. 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 | browserify | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 15K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Ladybird if
- You weight community size — 66K 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 browserify if
- You want the browserify feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and browserify fits your workflow better
About Ladybird
Ladybird is a truly independent web browser and browser engine, written from scratch in C++ rather than as a fork of any existing engine, and it is built for developers who want to work on a browser engine based on web standards while it remains in a pre alpha state.
read the full Ladybird overview →
About browserify
Browserify is an MIT licensed JavaScript command line bundler, installed from npm, that lets browser code use Node style require() calls and bundles the whole dependency graph into a single script you serve with a tag.
read the full browserify overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or browserify more popular?
Ladybird has 66,248 GitHub stars and browserify has 14,695. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and browserify free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and browserify under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and browserify?
Ladybird is written in C++ and browserify in JavaScript. 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 browserify?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,248 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose browserify if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.