head to head · open source
Ladybird vs browserify
Ladybird has 66,807 GitHub stars, 3,194 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. browserify has 14,693 stars, 1,202 forks, 387 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. Ladybird leads on adoption by 355% (66,807 vs 14,693 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 | ★ 67K | ★ 15K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 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 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 browserify
browserify require('modules') in the browser Use a node style require() to organize your browser code and load modules installed by npm. browserify will recursively analyze all the require() calls in your app in order to build a bundle you can serve up to the browser in a single into your html! install With npm do: usage compatibility Many npm modules that don't do IO will just work after being browserified. Others take more work. Many node built in modules have been wrapped to work in the browser, but only when you explicitly require() or use their functionality. When you require() any of these modules, you…
read the full browserify overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or browserify more popular?
Ladybird has 66,807 GitHub stars and browserify has 14,693. 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 (66,807 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose browserify if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.