head to head · open source
Ladybird vs firefox-ios
Ladybird has 66,237 GitHub stars, 3,163 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. firefox-ios has 13,039 stars, 3,265 forks, 1,827 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ladybird leads on adoption by 408% (66,237 vs 13,039 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; firefox-ios is written in Swift under MPL-2.0. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, firefox-ios 25%. 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 | firefox-ios | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 13K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 3.3K |
| 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 firefox-ios if
- You want the firefox-ios feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and firefox-ios 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 firefox-ios
Firefox for iOS is the Mozilla maintained, Swift written monorepo that holds the complete source for the Firefox and Focus browsers on Apple's mobile platform, released under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 and intended for iOS engineers, Mozilla contributors, and anyone who wants to build, audit, or modify the browser running on an iPhone or iPad.
read the full firefox-ios overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or firefox-ios more popular?
Ladybird has 66,237 GitHub stars and firefox-ios has 13,039. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and firefox-ios free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and firefox-ios under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and firefox-ios?
Ladybird is written in C++ and firefox-ios in Swift. 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 firefox-ios?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,237 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose firefox-ios if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.