head to head · open source
serenity vs webtorrent
serenity has 33,840 GitHub stars, 3,541 forks, 739 open issues and last shipped yesterday. webtorrent has 31,397 stars, 2,902 forks, 83 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. serenity leads on adoption by 8% (33,840 vs 31,397 stars). serenity is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; webtorrent is written in JavaScript under MIT. serenity has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, webtorrent 9%. 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 | webtorrent | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 31K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 2.9K |
| 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 webtorrent if
- You want the webtorrent feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and webtorrent 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 webtorrent
WebTorrent is a streaming torrent client written entirely in JavaScript, distributed as a single npm package that runs both in node.js and in the browser. In node.js it behaves as an ordinary torrent client, using TCP and UDP to communicate with other clients. In the browser it uses WebRTC data channels for peer to peer transport, which means it works without browser plugins, extensions, or installations. The project lives in the JavaScript and node.js ecosystem, is licensed under MIT, and has been developed for roughly thirteen years.
read the full webtorrent overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is serenity or webtorrent more popular?
serenity has 33,840 GitHub stars and webtorrent has 31,397. serenity has the larger community by that measure.
Are serenity and webtorrent free?
Both are open source. serenity is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and webtorrent under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between serenity and webtorrent?
serenity is written in C++ and webtorrent in JavaScript. 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 webtorrent?
Choose serenity if you want the larger community (33,840 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose webtorrent if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.