head to head · open source
servo vs serenity
servo has 38,001 GitHub stars, 3,798 forks, 3,209 open issues and last shipped yesterday. serenity has 33,840 stars, 3,541 forks, 739 open issues and last shipped yesterday. servo leads on adoption by 12% (38,001 vs 33,840 stars). servo is written in Rust under MPL-2.0; serenity is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause. servo has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, serenity 10%. servo 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
| servo | serenity | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 34K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | Rust | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 3.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick servo if
- You weight community size — 38K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick serenity if
- You want the serenity feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and serenity fits your workflow better
About servo
Servo is a prototype web browser engine written in the Rust programming language. It is developed on 64 bit macOS, 64 bit Linux, 64 bit Windows, 64 bit OpenHarmony, and Android, and it lives in the Rust ecosystem as an open source project licensed under MPL 2.0. The repository carries the topics browser, rust, servo, web, webbrowser, webengine, and webplatform, and the project describes itself as aiming to empower developers with a lightweight, high performance alternative for embedding web technologies in applications. Documentation lives in the Servo Book, with news and guides at servo.org.
read the full servo overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is servo or serenity more popular?
servo has 38,001 GitHub stars and serenity has 33,840. servo has the larger community by that measure.
Are servo and serenity free?
Both are open source. servo is licensed under MPL-2.0 and serenity under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between servo and serenity?
servo is written in Rust and serenity 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, servo or serenity?
Choose servo if you want the larger community (38,001 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose serenity if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.