head to head · open source
mocha vs buster
mocha has 22,894 GitHub stars, 3,151 forks, 222 open issues and last shipped yesterday. buster has 9,302 stars, 694 forks, 50 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. mocha leads on adoption by 146% (22,894 vs 9,302 stars). mocha is written in JavaScript under MIT; buster is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. mocha has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, buster 7%. mocha 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| mocha | buster | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 9.3K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-06-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 694 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick mocha if
- You weight community size — 23K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick buster if
- You want the buster feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and buster fits your workflow better
About mocha
Mocha is a classic, reliable and trusted test framework for Node.js and the browser, distributed as an open source JavaScript module under the MIT licence and aimed at JavaScript developers and package maintainers who need to write and run automated tests inside a Node.js process or in a browser environment.
read the full mocha overview →
About buster
Buster is a free, open source browser extension for Chrome, Edge and Firefox that helps people solve difficult CAPTCHA challenges by completing reCAPTCHA audio challenges with speech recognition, and it is intended for ordinary human users rather than automation operators.
read the full buster overview →
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More Browsers & Extensions projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Browsers & Extensions field.
Frequently asked questions
Is mocha or buster more popular?
mocha has 22,894 GitHub stars and buster has 9,302. mocha has the larger community by that measure.
Are mocha and buster free?
Both are open source. mocha is licensed under MIT and buster under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mocha and buster?
mocha is written in JavaScript and buster 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, mocha or buster?
Choose mocha if you want the larger community (22,894 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose buster if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.