head to head · open source
Ladybird vs Helium
Ladybird has 66,807 GitHub stars, 3,194 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Helium has 22,283 stars, 680 forks, 490 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ladybird leads on adoption by 200% (66,807 vs 22,283 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; Helium is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Helium 3%. 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 | Helium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 67K | ★ 22K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 680 |
| 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 Helium if
- You want the Helium feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and Helium 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 Helium
Helium The Chromium based web browser made for people, with love. Privacy first with unbiased ad blocking. No bloat and no noise. helium.computer Downloads [!NOTE] Helium is currently in beta, so unexpected issues may occur. Please report them if they haven't already been reported. The easiest way to download Helium is helium.computer. It'll pick a compatible binary for your platform automatically. The same releases can also be downloaded from source on GitHub: Latest macOS release Latest Linux release Latest Windows release Helium repos All Helium packaging, tooling, services, and components are open source and…
read the full Helium overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or Helium more popular?
Ladybird has 66,807 GitHub stars and Helium has 22,283. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and Helium free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Helium under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and Helium?
Ladybird is written in C++ and Helium in C++. 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 Helium?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,807 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose Helium if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.