head to head · open source
uBlock vs chromium
uBlock has 67,923 GitHub stars, 4,353 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped yesterday. chromium has 24,799 stars, 9,244 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped yesterday. uBlock leads on adoption by 174% (67,923 vs 24,799 stars). uBlock is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0; chromium is written in various languages under BSD-3-Clause. uBlock has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, chromium 37%. chromium 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 | chromium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 68K | ★ 25K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | JavaScript | — |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 9.2K |
| 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 chromium if
- You want the chromium feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- You evaluated both and chromium 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 chromium
The official GitHub mirror of the Chromium source — read only snapshot of the codebase behind the Chromium open source browser project, aimed at developers and packagers who need to read, build, or audit browser source rather than end users looking for a browser download.
read the full chromium overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is uBlock or chromium more popular?
uBlock has 67,923 GitHub stars and chromium has 24,799. uBlock has the larger community by that measure.
Are uBlock and chromium free?
Both are open source. uBlock is licensed under GPL-3.0 and chromium under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between uBlock and chromium?
uBlock is written in JavaScript and chromium 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 chromium?
Choose uBlock if you want the larger community (67,923 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose chromium if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.