head to head · open source
Ladybird vs HackBrowserData
Ladybird has 66,237 GitHub stars, 3,163 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. HackBrowserData has 14,534 stars, 1,810 forks, 33 open issues and last shipped 17 days ago. Ladybird leads on adoption by 356% (66,237 vs 14,534 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; HackBrowserData is written in Go under MIT. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, HackBrowserData 12%. 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 | HackBrowserData | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 15K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| 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 HackBrowserData if
- You want the HackBrowserData feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and HackBrowserData 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 HackBrowserData
HackBrowserData is an MIT licensed command line tool written in Go that decrypts and exports browser data — passwords, cookies, history, bookmarks, credit cards, downloads, extensions, localStorage and sessionStorage — from Chromium based browsers, Firefox, and Safari for security research on Windows, macOS and Linux.
read the full HackBrowserData overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or HackBrowserData more popular?
Ladybird has 66,237 GitHub stars and HackBrowserData has 14,534. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and HackBrowserData free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and HackBrowserData under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and HackBrowserData?
Ladybird is written in C++ and HackBrowserData in Go. 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 HackBrowserData?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,237 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose HackBrowserData if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.