head to head · open source
Ladybird vs extism
Ladybird has 66,240 GitHub stars, 3,162 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped today. extism has 5,764 stars, 168 forks, 54 open issues and last shipped 16 days ago. Ladybird leads on adoption by 1,049% (66,240 vs 5,764 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; extism is written in Rust under BSD-3-Clause. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, extism 3%. 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 | extism | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 5.8K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | C++ | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 168 |
| 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 extism if
- You want the extism feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and extism 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 extism
Extism is a lightweight, BSD 3 Clause licensed framework for running WebAssembly (Wasm) inside your own application, aimed at developers who want to make software extensible with untrusted, user supplied plug in code across servers, the edge, CLIs, IoT devices, and browsers.
read the full extism overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or extism more popular?
Ladybird has 66,240 GitHub stars and extism has 5,764. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and extism free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and extism under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and extism?
Ladybird is written in C++ and extism in Rust. 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 extism?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,240 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose extism if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.