head to head · open source
uBlock vs serenity
uBlock has 67,923 GitHub stars, 4,353 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped yesterday. serenity has 33,840 stars, 3,541 forks, 739 open issues and last shipped yesterday. uBlock leads on adoption by 101% (67,923 vs 33,840 stars). uBlock is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0; serenity is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause. uBlock has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, serenity 10%. uBlock was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | serenity | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 68K | ★ 34K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | JavaScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 3.5K |
| 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 serenity if
- You want the serenity feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and serenity 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 serenity
SerenityOS is a graphical Unix like operating system built for 64 bit x86, Arm, and RISC V computers. It is written in C++ and released under the BSD 2 Clause license, and it lives in the open source operating system ecosystem alongside other hobbyist and research kernels. The project describes itself as a love letter to 1990s user interfaces paired with a custom Unix like core, aiming for a marriage between the aesthetic of late 1990s productivity software and the power user accessibility of late 2000s Unix systems.
read the full serenity overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is uBlock or serenity more popular?
uBlock has 67,923 GitHub stars and serenity has 33,840. uBlock has the larger community by that measure.
Are uBlock and serenity free?
Both are open source. uBlock is licensed under GPL-3.0 and serenity under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between uBlock and serenity?
uBlock is written in JavaScript and serenity in C++. 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 serenity?
Choose uBlock if you want the larger community (67,923 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose serenity if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.