head to head · open source
Lightpanda vs Ethora
Lightpanda has 40,882 GitHub stars, 1,999 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ethora has 552 stars, 112 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lightpanda leads on adoption by 7,306% (40,882 vs 552 stars). Lightpanda is written in Zig under AGPL-3.0; Ethora is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. Lightpanda has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Ethora 20%. Lightpanda 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
| Lightpanda | Ethora | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 552 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Zig | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.0K | ⑂ 112 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Lightpanda if
- You weight community size — 41K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Zig
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Ethora if
- You want the Ethora feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and Ethora fits your workflow better
About Lightpanda
Lightpanda Browser The headless browser built from scratch for AI agents and automation. Not a Chromium fork. Not a WebKit patch. A new browser, written in Zig.   Benchmarks Requesting 933 real web pages over the network on a AWS EC2 m5.large instance. See benchmark details. Quick start Install Package Managers Latest nightly from Homebrew: Latest nightly from Arch Linux User Repository: Download from the nightly builds You can download the last binary from the nightly builds for Linux and MacOS for both x86 64 and aarch64. For Linux Verify the binary before running anything: Linux aarch64 is also available…
read the full Lightpanda overview →
About Ethora
Ethora — SDK Monorepo Chat, AI and messaging SDK platform. Add real time messaging, AI bots, and backend services to your app in minutes. This repository serves as the SDK monorepo — a single place to discover, clone, and navigate all Ethora SDKs, tools, and sample apps. Each component lives in its own focused repository, linked here as git submodules. Ecosystem Feature coverage across SDKs Quick glance at what each SDK supports. Full matrix with evidence: features/ · Source: features/features.yaml Legend: ✅ Present · 🟡 Partial · 🛠 Roadmap · — Absent Coverage (present + partial×0.5) / 44 features: React.js 77%…
read the full Ethora overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lightpanda or Ethora more popular?
Lightpanda has 40,882 GitHub stars and Ethora has 552. Lightpanda has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lightpanda and Ethora free?
Both are open source. Lightpanda is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Ethora under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lightpanda and Ethora?
Lightpanda is written in Zig and Ethora 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, Lightpanda or Ethora?
Choose Lightpanda if you want the larger community (40,882 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Ethora if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.