head to head · open source
uBlock vs plasmo
uBlock has 69,033 GitHub stars, 4,427 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped yesterday. plasmo has 13,172 stars, 466 forks, 371 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. uBlock leads on adoption by 424% (69,033 vs 13,172 stars). uBlock is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0; plasmo is written in TypeScript under MIT. uBlock has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, plasmo 4%. 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 | plasmo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 69K | ★ 13K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 466 |
| 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 plasmo if
- You want the plasmo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and plasmo 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 plasmo
English 简体中文 Tiếng Việt Deutsch French Indonesian Русский Turkish 日本語 한국어 Production Cloud: We've built a cloud offering for browser extensions called Itero. Check it out if you want instant beta testing and more awesome features. Plasmo Framework The Plasmo Framework is a battery packed browser extension SDK made by hackers for hackers. Build your product and stop worrying about config files and the odd peculiarities of building browser extensions. It's like Next.js for browser extensions! Highlighted Features First class React + Typescript Support Declarative Development Content Scripts UI Tab Pages Live…
read the full plasmo overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is uBlock or plasmo more popular?
uBlock has 69,033 GitHub stars and plasmo has 13,172. uBlock has the larger community by that measure.
Are uBlock and plasmo free?
Both are open source. uBlock is licensed under GPL-3.0 and plasmo under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between uBlock and plasmo?
uBlock is written in JavaScript and plasmo in TypeScript. 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 plasmo?
Choose uBlock if you want the larger community (69,033 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose plasmo if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.