head to head · open source
serenity vs BrowserOS
serenity has 33,943 GitHub stars, 3,493 forks, 739 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. BrowserOS has 14,245 stars, 1,531 forks, 82 open issues and last shipped yesterday. serenity leads on adoption by 138% (33,943 vs 14,245 stars). serenity is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; BrowserOS is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. serenity has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, BrowserOS 11%. BrowserOS 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
| serenity | BrowserOS | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 14K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick serenity if
- You weight community size — 34K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick BrowserOS if
- You want the BrowserOS feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and BrowserOS fits your workflow better
About serenity
SerenityOS Graphical Unix like operating system for 64 bit x86, Arm, and RISC V computers. FAQ Documentation Build Instructions About SerenityOS is a love letter to '90s user interfaces with a custom Unix like core. It flatters with sincerity by stealing beautiful ideas from various other systems. Roughly speaking, the goal is a marriage between the aesthetic of late 1990s productivity software and the power user accessibility of late 2000s \ nix. This is a system by us, for us, based on the things we like. You can watch videos of the system being developed on YouTube: Andreas Kling's channel Linus Groh's…
read the full serenity overview →
About BrowserOS
Website · Docs · Enterprise Free · Open source · Everything runs on your machine A second browser, just for your AI agents. Import your logins from Chrome in one click, connect Claude Code, Codex, or any MCP agent, and hand off your web tasks. Agents run in parallel in their own tabs. You watch live, or replay any session like a video. BrowserOS neo is not a Chrome replacement. It is a secondary browser that sits next to Chrome, made friendly to agents. Get started 1. Install BrowserOS neo Prefer a direct download? Grab it for macOS or Windows. 2. Import from Chrome One click brings over your logins, bookmarks…
read the full BrowserOS overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is serenity or BrowserOS more popular?
serenity has 33,943 GitHub stars and BrowserOS has 14,245. serenity has the larger community by that measure.
Are serenity and BrowserOS free?
Both are open source. serenity is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and BrowserOS under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between serenity and BrowserOS?
serenity is written in C++ and BrowserOS in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, serenity or BrowserOS?
Choose serenity if you want the larger community (33,943 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose BrowserOS if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.