head to head · open source
Ladybird vs zip.js
Ladybird has 66,240 GitHub stars, 3,162 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zip.js has 3,894 stars, 547 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Ladybird leads on adoption by 1,601% (66,240 vs 3,894 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; zip.js is written in JavaScript under BSD-3-Clause. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, zip.js 14%. 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 | zip.js | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | C++ | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 547 |
| 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 zip.js if
- You want the zip.js feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and zip.js 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 zip.js
zip.js is a BSD 3 Clause JavaScript library for compressing and decompressing zip files in browsers, Node.js, Deno and service workers, built for developers who need to read and write large archives in JavaScript without a native binary or a server round trip.
read the full zip.js overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or zip.js more popular?
Ladybird has 66,240 GitHub stars and zip.js has 3,894. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and zip.js free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and zip.js under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and zip.js?
Ladybird is written in C++ and zip.js 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 zip.js?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,240 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose zip.js if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.