head to head · open source
uBlock vs zip.js
uBlock has 67,937 GitHub stars, 4,354 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. zip.js has 3,894 stars, 547 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. uBlock leads on adoption by 1,645% (67,937 vs 3,894 stars). uBlock is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0; zip.js is written in JavaScript under BSD-3-Clause. uBlock has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, zip.js 14%. 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 | zip.js | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 68K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 547 |
| 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 zip.js if
- You want the zip.js feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and zip.js 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 zip.js
zip.js is a BSD 3 Clause JavaScript library for compressing and decompressing zip files in browsers, Node.js, Deno and service workers, built for developers who need to read and write large archives in JavaScript without a native binary or a server round trip.
read the full zip.js overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is uBlock or zip.js more popular?
uBlock has 67,937 GitHub stars and zip.js has 3,894. uBlock has the larger community by that measure.
Are uBlock and zip.js free?
Both are open source. uBlock is licensed under GPL-3.0 and zip.js under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between uBlock and zip.js?
uBlock is written in JavaScript and zip.js in JavaScript. 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 zip.js?
Choose uBlock if you want the larger community (67,937 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose zip.js if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.