head to head · open source
servo vs Helium
servo has 38,301 GitHub stars, 3,865 forks, 3,209 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Helium has 22,283 stars, 680 forks, 490 open issues and last shipped yesterday. servo leads on adoption by 72% (38,301 vs 22,283 stars). servo is written in Rust under MPL-2.0; Helium is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. servo has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Helium 3%. 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 | Helium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 22K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.9K | ⑂ 680 |
| 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 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 servo
The Servo Parallel Browser Engine Project Servo is a prototype web browser engine written in the Rust language. It is currently developed on 64 bit macOS, 64 bit Linux, 64 bit Windows, 64 bit OpenHarmony, and Android. Servo welcomes contribution from everyone. Check out: The Servo Book for documentation servo.org for news and guides Coordination of Servo development happens: Here in the Github Issues On the Servo Zulip In video calls advertised in the Servo Project repo. Getting started For more detailed build instructions, see the Servo Book under [Getting the Code] and [Building Servo]. [Getting the Code]…
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About Helium
Helium The Chromium based web browser made for people, with love. Privacy first with unbiased ad blocking. No bloat and no noise. helium.computer Downloads [!NOTE] Helium is currently in beta, so unexpected issues may occur. Please report them if they haven't already been reported. The easiest way to download Helium is helium.computer. It'll pick a compatible binary for your platform automatically. The same releases can also be downloaded from source on GitHub: Latest macOS release Latest Linux release Latest Windows release Helium repos All Helium packaging, tooling, services, and components are open source and…
read the full Helium overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is servo or Helium more popular?
servo has 38,301 GitHub stars and Helium has 22,283. servo has the larger community by that measure.
Are servo and Helium free?
Both are open source. servo is licensed under MPL-2.0 and Helium under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between servo and Helium?
servo is written in Rust 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, servo or Helium?
Choose servo if you want the larger community (38,301 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose Helium if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.