head to head · open source
Lightpanda vs iOS
Lightpanda has 35,409 GitHub stars, 1,680 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped yesterday. iOS has 2,353 stars, 521 forks, 293 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lightpanda leads on adoption by 1,405% (35,409 vs 2,353 stars). Lightpanda is written in Zig under AGPL-3.0; iOS is written in Swift under Apache-2.0. Lightpanda has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, iOS 22%. 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 | iOS | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 35K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Zig | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 521 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Lightpanda if
- You weight community size — 35K 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 iOS if
- You want the iOS feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and iOS fits your workflow better
About Lightpanda
Lightpanda is a headless browser built from scratch in Zig, designed specifically for AI agents and automation tasks. It is not a fork of Chromium or WebKit but a new implementation targeting performance and efficiency in automated web interactions. It lives in the browser automation ecosystem, competing with tools like Puppeteer and Playwright that typically rely on Chromium based headless modes.
read the full Lightpanda overview →
About iOS
Home Assistant for Apple Platforms is companion app for Home Assistant on iOS and macOS. It lives in Home Assistant open source home automation ecosystem. Project is written in Swift, licensed Apache 2.0, and tagged with home assistant, home automation, ios, macos, open source app, swift. Repository lists 2350 stars, 519 forks, 293 open issues, and 10 years age. Category is Productivity & Utilities / Automation. Last push is 2026 09 15T06:10:16Z.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lightpanda or iOS more popular?
Lightpanda has 35,409 GitHub stars and iOS has 2,353. Lightpanda has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lightpanda and iOS free?
Both are open source. Lightpanda is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and iOS under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lightpanda and iOS?
Lightpanda is written in Zig and iOS in Swift. 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 iOS?
Choose Lightpanda if you want the larger community (35,409 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose iOS if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.