head to head · open source
uBlock vs buster
uBlock has 67,923 GitHub stars, 4,353 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped yesterday. buster has 9,302 stars, 694 forks, 50 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. uBlock leads on adoption by 630% (67,923 vs 9,302 stars). uBlock is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0; buster is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. uBlock has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, buster 7%. uBlock was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (browser-extension), 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 | buster | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 68K | ★ 9.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-06-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 694 |
| 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 buster if
- You want the buster feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and buster 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 buster
Buster is a free, open source browser extension for Chrome, Edge and Firefox that helps people solve difficult CAPTCHA challenges by completing reCAPTCHA audio challenges with speech recognition, and it is intended for ordinary human users rather than automation operators.
read the full buster overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is uBlock or buster more popular?
uBlock has 67,923 GitHub stars and buster has 9,302. uBlock has the larger community by that measure.
Are uBlock and buster free?
Both are open source. uBlock is licensed under GPL-3.0 and buster under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between uBlock and buster?
uBlock is written in JavaScript and buster 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 buster?
Choose uBlock if you want the larger community (67,923 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose buster if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.