head to head · open source
Ladybird vs markdown-viewer
Ladybird has 66,240 GitHub stars, 3,162 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped today. markdown-viewer has 1,684 stars, 227 forks, 99 open issues and last shipped 9 months ago. Ladybird leads on adoption by 3,833% (66,240 vs 1,684 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; markdown-viewer is written in JavaScript under MIT. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, markdown-viewer 13%. Ladybird was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | markdown-viewer | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2025-12-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 227 |
| 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 markdown-viewer if
- You want the markdown-viewer feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and markdown-viewer 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 markdown-viewer
Markdown Viewer / Browser Extension Install: [Chrome] / [Firefox] / [Edge] / [Opera] / [Brave] / [Chromium] / [Vivaldi] Features Secure by design Render local and remote file URLs Granular access to remote origins Multiple markdown parsers Full control over the compiler options ([markdown it], [marked], [remark]) 30+ Themes ([cleanrmd], [GitHub][github theme]) Custom theme support GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) Auto reload on file change Syntax highlighted code blocks ([prism][prism]) Table of Contents (ToC) MathJax formulas ([mathjax]) Mermaid diagrams ([mermaid]) Convert emoji shortnames (icons provided free by…
read the full markdown-viewer overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or markdown-viewer more popular?
Ladybird has 66,240 GitHub stars and markdown-viewer has 1,684. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and markdown-viewer free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and markdown-viewer under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and markdown-viewer?
Ladybird is written in C++ and markdown-viewer in JavaScript. 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 markdown-viewer?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,240 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose markdown-viewer if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.