head to head · open source
serenity vs qutebrowser
serenity has 33,847 GitHub stars, 3,544 forks, 739 open issues and last shipped today. qutebrowser has 11,699 stars, 1,130 forks, 1,335 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. serenity leads on adoption by 189% (33,847 vs 11,699 stars). serenity is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; qutebrowser is written in Python under GPL-3.0. serenity has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, qutebrowser 10%. serenity 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 | qutebrowser | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 12K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 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 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 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 serenity or qutebrowser more popular?
serenity has 33,847 GitHub stars and qutebrowser has 11,699. serenity has the larger community by that measure.
Are serenity and qutebrowser free?
Both are open source. serenity is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and qutebrowser under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between serenity and qutebrowser?
serenity is written in C++ 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, serenity or qutebrowser?
Choose serenity if you want the larger community (33,847 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose qutebrowser if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.