head to head · open source
uBlock vs Thorium-Android
uBlock has 67,923 GitHub stars, 4,353 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Thorium-Android has 785 stars, 12 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped 26 days ago. uBlock leads on adoption by 8,553% (67,923 vs 785 stars). uBlock is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0; Thorium-Android is written in various languages under BSD-3-Clause. uBlock has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Thorium-Android 2%. uBlock 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 | Thorium-Android | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 68K | ★ 785 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | JavaScript | — |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 12 |
| 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 Thorium-Android if
- You want the Thorium-Android feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- You evaluated both and Thorium-Android 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 Thorium-Android
Thorium Android is a repository that serves builds of Thorium for Android. It supports both arm32 and arm64 architectures, and the README describes it as a separate repository for Android builds. The project lives in the Android and Chromium ecosystem, because Thorium is a browser, the repository is categorized under Browsers & Extensions, and the topic list includes chromium.
read the full Thorium-Android overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is uBlock or Thorium-Android more popular?
uBlock has 67,923 GitHub stars and Thorium-Android has 785. uBlock has the larger community by that measure.
Are uBlock and Thorium-Android free?
Both are open source. uBlock is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Thorium-Android under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between uBlock and Thorium-Android?
uBlock is written in JavaScript and Thorium-Android 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 Thorium-Android?
Choose uBlock if you want the larger community (67,923 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Thorium-Android if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.