head to head · open source
Ladybird vs firefox-ios
Ladybird has 66,807 GitHub stars, 3,194 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. firefox-ios has 13,069 stars, 3,294 forks, 1,827 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ladybird leads on adoption by 411% (66,807 vs 13,069 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 | ★ 67K | ★ 13K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 3.3K |
| 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 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 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 firefox-ios
Firefox for iOS and Focus iOS Download Firefox iOS and Focus iOS on the App Store. Firefox iOS Focus iOS Building the code This is a monolithic repository, containing both the Firefox and Focus iOS projects. As this is an iOS project, it is required to have Xcode on your system, and you should check that xcode select p points to /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer (or however you've named your Xcode.app ). Automatic Installation (Recommended) Steps: Automated Project Setup with FXIOS Manual Installation 1. Clone the repo locally 1. For their related build instructions, please follow the respective project…
read the full firefox-ios overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or firefox-ios more popular?
Ladybird has 66,807 GitHub stars and firefox-ios has 13,069. 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 (66,807 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.