head to head · open source
serenity vs qutebrowser
serenity has 33,943 GitHub stars, 3,493 forks, 739 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. qutebrowser has 11,737 stars, 1,141 forks, 1,335 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. serenity leads on adoption by 189% (33,943 vs 11,737 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 | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-02 |
| 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 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 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 serenity or qutebrowser more popular?
serenity has 33,943 GitHub stars and qutebrowser has 11,737. 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 (33,943 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.