head to head · open source
Ladybird vs SingleFile
Ladybird has 66,237 GitHub stars, 3,163 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SingleFile has 22,411 stars, 1,410 forks, 101 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ladybird leads on adoption by 196% (66,237 vs 22,411 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; SingleFile is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, SingleFile 6%. 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 | SingleFile | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 22K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| 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 SingleFile if
- You want the SingleFile feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and SingleFile 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 SingleFile
SingleFile is a web extension, and also a command line tool, that saves a complete web page into a single HTML file. It is written in JavaScript and released under the AGPL 3.0 license, and it lives in the browser extension ecosystem, with builds published for Chrome, Firefox (desktop and mobile), Microsoft Edge, Safari, Vivaldi, Brave, Waterfox, Yandex browser, and Opera. The project has been developed for roughly sixteen years and is distributed through the extension stores of Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Microsoft Edge, as well as through manual installation from the project archive.
read the full SingleFile overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or SingleFile more popular?
Ladybird has 66,237 GitHub stars and SingleFile has 22,411. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and SingleFile free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and SingleFile under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and SingleFile?
Ladybird is written in C++ and SingleFile 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 SingleFile?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,237 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose SingleFile if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.