head to head · open source
uBlock vs Brave
uBlock has 69,033 GitHub stars, 4,427 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Brave has 24,079 stars, 3,263 forks, 10,752 open issues and last shipped yesterday. uBlock leads on adoption by 187% (69,033 vs 24,079 stars). uBlock is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0; Brave is written in various languages under MPL-2.0. uBlock has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Brave 14%. uBlock was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (chromium), 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
| uBlock | Brave | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 69K | ★ 24K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | — |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 3.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick uBlock if
- You weight community size — 69K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Brave if
- You want the Brave feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- You evaluated both and Brave fits your workflow better
About uBlock
[![Badge Commits]][Commit Rate] [![Badge Issues]][Issues] [![Badge Localization]][Crowdin] [![Badge License]][License] [![Badge NPM]][NPM] [![Badge Mozilla]][Mozilla] ![Badge Chrome] [![Badge Edge]][Edge] uBlock Origin (uBO) GitHub Releases Stable and development versions on Firefox, Chromium MV2, and Thunderbird. Must be placed manually into web browsers; the Chromium and Thunderbird versions usually won't auto update. Related: uBlock Origin Lite uBlock Origin (uBO) is a CPU and memory efficient [wide spectrum content blocker][Blocking] for Chromium and Firefox. It blocks ads, trackers, coin miners, popups…
read the full uBlock overview →
About Brave
Brave Browser This repository is not needed for building the browser and only holds issues, releases and the wiki. The source code and contributions are at You can visit our website to get the latest stable release. Resources Issues: Bug reports and feature requests for the Brave Browser. Releases: Releases of Brave Browser hosted on GitHub. See Brave Release Schedule for more information. Wiki: Documentation for developers, administrators, and power users. User facing documentation is available at the Brave help center. Documentation and guides: Additional technical information, primarily for developers…
read the full Brave overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is uBlock or Brave more popular?
uBlock has 69,033 GitHub stars and Brave has 24,079. uBlock has the larger community by that measure.
Are uBlock and Brave free?
Both are open source. uBlock is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Brave under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between uBlock and Brave?
uBlock is written in JavaScript and Brave in various languages. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, uBlock or Brave?
Choose uBlock if you want the larger community (69,033 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Brave if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.