head to head · open source
Lightpanda vs joint
Lightpanda has 35,409 GitHub stars, 1,680 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped yesterday. joint has 5,385 stars, 893 forks, 49 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lightpanda leads on adoption by 558% (35,409 vs 5,385 stars). Lightpanda is written in Zig under AGPL-3.0; joint is written in JavaScript under MPL-2.0. Lightpanda has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, joint 17%. 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 | joint | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 35K | ★ 5.4K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Zig | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 893 |
| 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 joint if
- You want the joint feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and joint 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 joint
JointJS is an MPL 2.0 licensed, SVG based JavaScript and TypeScript diagramming library for teams building production scale diagramming UIs such as AI workflow builders, BPMN modelers, SCADA/HMI dashboards, and data modeling tools.
read the full joint overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lightpanda or joint more popular?
Lightpanda has 35,409 GitHub stars and joint has 5,385. Lightpanda has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lightpanda and joint free?
Both are open source. Lightpanda is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and joint under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lightpanda and joint?
Lightpanda is written in Zig and joint 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 joint?
Choose Lightpanda if you want the larger community (35,409 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose joint if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.