head to head · open source
Ladybird vs gosub-engine
Ladybird has 66,240 GitHub stars, 3,162 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gosub-engine has 3,685 stars, 180 forks, 43 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ladybird leads on adoption by 1,698% (66,240 vs 3,685 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; gosub-engine is written in Rust under MIT. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, gosub-engine 5%. gosub-engine 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 | gosub-engine | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 180 |
| 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 gosub-engine if
- You want the gosub-engine feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and gosub-engine 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 gosub-engine
Gosub is an embeddable, asynchronous browser engine written in Rust, aimed at developers who want to build browsing capability into their own application by supplying a render backend and compositor rather than embedding a full browser.
read the full gosub-engine overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or gosub-engine more popular?
Ladybird has 66,240 GitHub stars and gosub-engine has 3,685. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and gosub-engine free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and gosub-engine under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and gosub-engine?
Ladybird is written in C++ and gosub-engine 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 gosub-engine?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,240 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose gosub-engine if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.