head to head · open source
slate vs qutebrowser
slate has 31,746 GitHub stars, 3,306 forks, 653 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. qutebrowser has 11,737 stars, 1,141 forks, 1,335 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. slate leads on adoption by 170% (31,746 vs 11,737 stars). slate is written in TypeScript under MIT; qutebrowser is written in Python under GPL-3.0. slate has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, qutebrowser 10%. qutebrowser was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (browser), 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
| slate | qutebrowser | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-28 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick slate if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- 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 slate
A completely customizable framework for building rich text editors. Why? · Principles · Demo · Examples · Documentation · Contributing! Slate lets you build rich, intuitive editors like those in Medium, Dropbox Paper or Google Docs—which are becoming table stakes for applications on the web—without your codebase getting mired in complexity. It can do this because all of its logic is implemented with a series of plugins, so you aren't ever constrained by what is or isn't in "core". You can think of it like a pluggable implementation of contenteditable built on top of React. It was inspired by libraries like…
read the full slate overview →
About qutebrowser
// SPDX License Identifier: GPL 3.0 or later // If you are reading this in plaintext or on PyPi: // // A rendered version is available at: // qutebrowser =========== // QUTE WEB HIDE image:qutebrowser/icons/qutebrowser 64x64.png[qutebrowser logo] A keyboard driven, vim like browser based on Python and Qt. image: Status", link=" image: badge",link=" link: link: link: // QUTE WEB HIDE END qutebrowser is a keyboard focused browser with a minimal GUI. It's based on Python and Qt and free software, licensed under the GPL. It was inspired by other browsers/addons like dwb and Vimperator/Pentadactyl. // QUTE WEB HIDE…
read the full qutebrowser overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is slate or qutebrowser more popular?
slate has 31,746 GitHub stars and qutebrowser has 11,737. slate has the larger community by that measure.
Are slate and qutebrowser free?
Both are open source. slate is licensed under MIT and qutebrowser under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between slate and qutebrowser?
slate is written in TypeScript 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, slate or qutebrowser?
Choose slate if you want the larger community (31,746 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose qutebrowser if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.