head to head · open source
Ladybird vs buster
Ladybird has 66,237 GitHub stars, 3,163 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. buster has 9,302 stars, 694 forks, 50 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Ladybird leads on adoption by 612% (66,237 vs 9,302 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; buster is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, buster 7%. Ladybird was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | buster | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 9.3K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-06-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 694 |
| 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 buster if
- You want the buster feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and buster 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 buster
Buster is a free, open source browser extension for Chrome, Edge and Firefox that helps people solve difficult CAPTCHA challenges by completing reCAPTCHA audio challenges with speech recognition, and it is intended for ordinary human users rather than automation operators.
read the full buster overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or buster more popular?
Ladybird has 66,237 GitHub stars and buster has 9,302. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and buster free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and buster under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and buster?
Ladybird is written in C++ and buster 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 buster?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,237 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose buster if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.