head to head · open source
Ladybird vs terminal-browser
Ladybird has 66,807 GitHub stars, 3,194 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. terminal-browser has 4,389 stars, 216 forks, 64 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ladybird leads on adoption by 1,422% (66,807 vs 4,389 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; terminal-browser is written in TypeScript under MIT. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, terminal-browser 5%. 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 | terminal-browser | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 67K | ★ 4.4K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 216 |
| 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 terminal-browser if
- You want the terminal-browser feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and terminal-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 terminal-browser
terminal browser A real browser that runs inside your terminal Installation curl (macOS & Linux): Note: Run terminal browser upgrade to upgrade versions Homebrew Claude code plugin Install instructions here Usage Use cases: You can have a coding agent and website scoped to the same terminal tab Your agent has full access to interact with open terminal browsers, which gives your agent the capability to use the web You can ask an agent to make HTML plans and then open them inside terminal browser, which will automatically open in a split pane next to your agent terminal browser works over SSH, which allows you to…
read the full terminal-browser overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or terminal-browser more popular?
Ladybird has 66,807 GitHub stars and terminal-browser has 4,389. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and terminal-browser free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and terminal-browser under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and terminal-browser?
Ladybird is written in C++ and terminal-browser in TypeScript. 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 terminal-browser?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,807 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose terminal-browser if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.