head to head · open source
servo vs qutebrowser
servo has 38,013 GitHub stars, 3,800 forks, 3,209 open issues and last shipped today. qutebrowser has 11,699 stars, 1,130 forks, 1,335 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. servo leads on adoption by 225% (38,013 vs 11,699 stars). servo is written in Rust under MPL-2.0; qutebrowser is written in Python under GPL-3.0. servo has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, qutebrowser 10%. servo was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (browser, web), 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
| servo | qutebrowser | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 12K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick servo if
- You weight community size — 38K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick qutebrowser if
- You want the qutebrowser feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and qutebrowser fits your workflow better
About servo
Servo is a prototype web browser engine written in the Rust programming language. It is developed on 64 bit macOS, 64 bit Linux, 64 bit Windows, 64 bit OpenHarmony, and Android, and it lives in the Rust ecosystem as an open source project licensed under MPL 2.0. The repository carries the topics browser, rust, servo, web, webbrowser, webengine, and webplatform, and the project describes itself as aiming to empower developers with a lightweight, high performance alternative for embedding web technologies in applications. Documentation lives in the Servo Book, with news and guides at servo.org.
read the full servo overview →
About qutebrowser
qutebrowser is a free, GPL 3.0 licensed, keyboard driven browser with a minimal GUI, built on Python and Qt, for people who want vim style keyboard control of the web rather than a mouse.
read the full qutebrowser overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is servo or qutebrowser more popular?
servo has 38,013 GitHub stars and qutebrowser has 11,699. servo has the larger community by that measure.
Are servo and qutebrowser free?
Both are open source. servo is licensed under MPL-2.0 and qutebrowser under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between servo and qutebrowser?
servo is written in Rust and qutebrowser in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, servo or qutebrowser?
Choose servo if you want the larger community (38,013 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose qutebrowser if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.