head to head · open source
serenity vs Helium
serenity has 33,840 GitHub stars, 3,541 forks, 739 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Helium has 20,739 stars, 579 forks, 490 open issues and last shipped yesterday. serenity leads on adoption by 63% (33,840 vs 20,739 stars). serenity is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; Helium is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. serenity has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Helium 3%. Helium 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 | Helium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 21K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 579 |
| 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 Helium if
- You want the Helium feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and Helium fits your workflow better
About serenity
SerenityOS is a graphical Unix like operating system built for 64 bit x86, Arm, and RISC V computers. It is written in C++ and released under the BSD 2 Clause license, and it lives in the open source operating system ecosystem alongside other hobbyist and research kernels. The project describes itself as a love letter to 1990s user interfaces paired with a custom Unix like core, aiming for a marriage between the aesthetic of late 1990s productivity software and the power user accessibility of late 2000s Unix systems.
read the full serenity overview →
About Helium
Helium is an open source desktop web browser built around the Chromium project. It lives in the Chromium browser ecosystem and is published as a C++ project under the GPL 3.0 license, with imported code retaining its original license. The project describes itself as private, fast, and honest, and as a privacy first browser with ad blocking and no bloat.
read the full Helium overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is serenity or Helium more popular?
serenity has 33,840 GitHub stars and Helium has 20,739. serenity has the larger community by that measure.
Are serenity and Helium free?
Both are open source. serenity is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Helium under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between serenity and Helium?
serenity is written in C++ and Helium in C++. 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 Helium?
Choose serenity if you want the larger community (33,840 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose Helium if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.