head to head · open source
Ladybird vs chromium
Ladybird has 66,807 GitHub stars, 3,194 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. chromium has 25,223 stars, 9,398 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ladybird leads on adoption by 165% (66,807 vs 25,223 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; chromium is written in various languages under BSD-3-Clause. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, chromium 37%. chromium 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 | chromium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 67K | ★ 25K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | C++ | — |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 9.4K |
| 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 chromium if
- You want the chromium feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- You evaluated both and chromium 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 chromium
Chromium Chromium is an open source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all users to experience the web. The project's web site is To check out the source code locally, don't use git clone ! Instead, follow the instructions on how to get the code. Documentation in the source is rooted in docs/README.md. Learn how to Get Around the Chromium Source Code Directory Structure. For historical reasons, there are some small top level directories. Now the guidance is that new top level directories are for product (e.g. Chrome, Android WebView, Ash). Even if these products have…
read the full chromium overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or chromium more popular?
Ladybird has 66,807 GitHub stars and chromium has 25,223. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and chromium free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and chromium under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and chromium?
Ladybird is written in C++ and chromium in various languages. 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 chromium?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,807 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose chromium if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.