head to head · open source
Ladybird vs reynard-browser
Ladybird has 66,807 GitHub stars, 3,194 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. reynard-browser has 1,889 stars, 158 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ladybird leads on adoption by 3,437% (66,807 vs 1,889 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; reynard-browser is written in Swift under GPL-3.0. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, reynard-browser 8%. 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 | reynard-browser | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 67K | ★ 1.9K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 158 |
| 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 reynard-browser if
- You want the reynard-browser feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and reynard-browser 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 reynard-browser
Reynard Browser Reynard is a Gecko based web browser for iOS 13+. Unlike other browsers on iOS that are forced to use Apple's WebKit engine (including Safari and all third party browsers), Reynard uses Gecko . This is the same engine that powers the Firefox browser on desktop and Android devices. Besides providing an alternative, up to date browser engine [^1], Reynard supports Firefox add ons, including more capable ad blocking extensions, along with privacy features such as Enhanced Tracking Protection and DNS over HTTPS. [^1]: This is particularly useful on older iOS versions. Because WebKit is bundled with…
read the full reynard-browser overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or reynard-browser more popular?
Ladybird has 66,807 GitHub stars and reynard-browser has 1,889. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and reynard-browser free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and reynard-browser under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and reynard-browser?
Ladybird is written in C++ and reynard-browser in Swift. 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 reynard-browser?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,807 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose reynard-browser if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.