head to head · open source
Ladybird vs ghostty-web
Ladybird has 66,240 GitHub stars, 3,162 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ghostty-web has 2,852 stars, 173 forks, 59 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Ladybird leads on adoption by 2,223% (66,240 vs 2,852 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; ghostty-web is written in TypeScript under MIT. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, ghostty-web 6%. 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 | ghostty-web | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 2.9K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-07-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 173 |
| 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 ghostty-web if
- You want the ghostty-web feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and ghostty-web 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 ghostty-web
ghostty web is an MIT licensed TypeScript library that brings Ghostty's WASM compiled VT100 terminal emulator to the browser behind an xterm.js compatible API, built for web developers who want a correct terminal in the page without abandoning their existing xterm.js integration.
read the full ghostty-web overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or ghostty-web more popular?
Ladybird has 66,240 GitHub stars and ghostty-web has 2,852. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and ghostty-web free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and ghostty-web under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and ghostty-web?
Ladybird is written in C++ and ghostty-web in TypeScript. 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 ghostty-web?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,240 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose ghostty-web if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.