head to head · open source
Ladybird vs servo
Ladybird has 66,237 GitHub stars, 3,163 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. servo has 38,001 stars, 3,798 forks, 3,209 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ladybird leads on adoption by 74% (66,237 vs 38,001 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; servo is written in Rust under MPL-2.0. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, servo 10%. 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 | servo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 38K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 3.8K |
| 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 servo if
- You want the servo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and servo 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 servo
Servo is a prototype web browser engine written in the Rust programming language. It is developed on 64 bit macOS, 64 bit Linux, 64 bit Windows, 64 bit OpenHarmony, and Android, and it lives in the Rust ecosystem as an open source project licensed under MPL 2.0. The repository carries the topics browser, rust, servo, web, webbrowser, webengine, and webplatform, and the project describes itself as aiming to empower developers with a lightweight, high performance alternative for embedding web technologies in applications. Documentation lives in the Servo Book, with news and guides at servo.org.
read the full servo overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or servo more popular?
Ladybird has 66,237 GitHub stars and servo has 38,001. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and servo free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and servo under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and servo?
Ladybird is written in C++ and servo in Rust. 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 servo?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,237 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose servo if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.