head to head · open source
Ladybird vs search-by-image
Ladybird has 66,237 GitHub stars, 3,163 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. search-by-image has 3,749 stars, 318 forks, 77 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Ladybird leads on adoption by 1,667% (66,237 vs 3,749 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; search-by-image is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, search-by-image 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 | search-by-image | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-06-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 318 |
| 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 search-by-image if
- You want the search-by-image feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and search-by-image 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 search-by-image
Search by Image is an open source JavaScript browser extension released under the GNU General Public License v3.0. It lives in the productivity and browser extension ecosystem, where it provides reverse image search from Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Firefox according to the project metadata. The extension addresses a concrete verification problem: users need to determine where an image came from, whether it is duplicated, or whether it is used misleadingly on social media. Instead of copying image URLs or downloading files, users can search with the image directly from the browser.
read the full search-by-image overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or search-by-image more popular?
Ladybird has 66,237 GitHub stars and search-by-image has 3,749. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and search-by-image free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and search-by-image under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and search-by-image?
Ladybird is written in C++ and search-by-image 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 search-by-image?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,237 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose search-by-image if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.