head to head · open source
uBlock vs browserify
uBlock has 67,951 GitHub stars, 4,354 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped yesterday. browserify has 14,695 stars, 1,202 forks, 387 open issues and last shipped yesterday. uBlock leads on adoption by 362% (67,951 vs 14,695 stars). uBlock is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0; browserify is written in JavaScript under MIT. uBlock has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, browserify 8%. browserify was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (javascript), 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 | browserify | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 68K | ★ 15K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick uBlock if
- You weight community size — 68K 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 browserify if
- You want the browserify feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and browserify fits your workflow better
About uBlock
uBlock Origin is a CPU and memory efficient, wide spectrum content blocker for Chromium and Firefox, aimed at anyone who wants ads, trackers, coin miners, popups, anti blockers and malware sites neutralised by default without hand tuning anything.
read the full uBlock overview →
About browserify
Browserify is an MIT licensed JavaScript command line bundler, installed from npm, that lets browser code use Node style require() calls and bundles the whole dependency graph into a single script you serve with a tag.
read the full browserify overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is uBlock or browserify more popular?
uBlock has 67,951 GitHub stars and browserify has 14,695. uBlock has the larger community by that measure.
Are uBlock and browserify free?
Both are open source. uBlock is licensed under GPL-3.0 and browserify under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between uBlock and browserify?
uBlock is written in JavaScript and browserify 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, uBlock or browserify?
Choose uBlock if you want the larger community (67,951 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose browserify if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.