head to head · open source
Ladybird vs thorium
Ladybird has 66,237 GitHub stars, 3,163 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. thorium has 7,508 stars, 283 forks, 140 open issues and last shipped 26 days ago. Ladybird leads on adoption by 782% (66,237 vs 7,508 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; thorium is written in C++ under BSD-3-Clause. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, thorium 4%. 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 | thorium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 7.5K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | C++ | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 283 |
| 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 thorium if
- You want the thorium feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and thorium 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 thorium
Thorium is a BSD 3 Clause licensed Chromium fork, written in C++ and named after radioactive element No. 90, that ships optimised Linux builds here while Windows, macOS, Android and Raspberry Pi builds live in companion repositories.
read the full thorium overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or thorium more popular?
Ladybird has 66,237 GitHub stars and thorium has 7,508. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and thorium free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and thorium under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and thorium?
Ladybird is written in C++ and thorium in C++. 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 thorium?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,237 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose thorium if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.