head to head · open source
Ladybird vs Thorium-Android
Ladybird has 66,807 GitHub stars, 3,194 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Thorium-Android has 802 stars, 14 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped 23 days ago. Ladybird leads on adoption by 8,230% (66,807 vs 802 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; Thorium-Android is written in various languages under BSD-3-Clause. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Thorium-Android 2%. 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-Android | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 67K | ★ 802 |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | C++ | — |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 14 |
| 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 Thorium-Android if
- You want the Thorium-Android feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- You evaluated both and Thorium-Android 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 Thorium-Android
Thorium Browser for Android – Simply a seperate repo to serve builds of Thorium for Android. Both arm32 and arm64 are supported. The main repo (and Linux builds) are located at Thanks for using Thorium!
read the full Thorium-Android overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or Thorium-Android more popular?
Ladybird has 66,807 GitHub stars and Thorium-Android has 802. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and Thorium-Android free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Thorium-Android under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and Thorium-Android?
Ladybird is written in C++ and Thorium-Android in various languages. 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-Android?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,807 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose Thorium-Android if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.