head to head · open source
Ladybird vs BrowserOS
Ladybird has 66,237 GitHub stars, 3,163 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. BrowserOS has 13,700 stars, 1,454 forks, 82 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ladybird leads on adoption by 383% (66,237 vs 13,700 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; BrowserOS is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, BrowserOS 11%. 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Ladybird | BrowserOS | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 14K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| 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 BrowserOS if
- You want the BrowserOS feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and BrowserOS 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 BrowserOS
BrowserOS is an open source agentic browser, written in TypeScript under AGPL 3.0, that puts AI agents inside a real Chromium browser on the user's own machine so they can work with real logged in accounts, and it is aimed at people who already use an agent harness such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or any MCP agent and want that agent to handle web tasks instead of a sandbox.
read the full BrowserOS 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 Ladybird or BrowserOS more popular?
Ladybird has 66,237 GitHub stars and BrowserOS has 13,700. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and BrowserOS free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and BrowserOS under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and BrowserOS?
Ladybird is written in C++ and BrowserOS 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 BrowserOS?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,237 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose BrowserOS if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.