head to head · open source
uBlock vs turndown
uBlock has 67,937 GitHub stars, 4,354 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped yesterday. turndown has 11,438 stars, 994 forks, 144 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. uBlock leads on adoption by 494% (67,937 vs 11,438 stars). uBlock is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0; turndown is written in HTML under MIT. uBlock has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, turndown 9%. uBlock was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (javascript), 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 | turndown | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 68K | ★ 11K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 994 |
| 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 turndown if
- You want the turndown feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and turndown 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 turndown
Turndown is a JavaScript library, published under the MIT licence, that converts HTML into CommonMark or GitHub Flavored Markdown and runs both in Node.js and in the browser.
read the full turndown overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is uBlock or turndown more popular?
uBlock has 67,937 GitHub stars and turndown has 11,438. uBlock has the larger community by that measure.
Are uBlock and turndown free?
Both are open source. uBlock is licensed under GPL-3.0 and turndown under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between uBlock and turndown?
uBlock is written in JavaScript and turndown in HTML. 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 turndown?
Choose uBlock if you want the larger community (67,937 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose turndown if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.