head to head · open source
Zen Browser vs arc
Zen Browser has 45,554 GitHub stars, 1,952 forks, 689 open issues and last shipped today. arc has 689 stars, 56 forks, 57 open issues and last shipped today. Zen Browser leads on adoption by 6,512% (45,554 vs 689 stars). Zen Browser is written in C++ under MPL-2.0; arc is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. Zen Browser has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, arc 8%. arc 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
| Zen Browser | arc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 689 |
| License | MPL-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.0K | ⑂ 56 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Zen Browser if
- You weight community size — 46K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick arc if
- You want the arc feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and arc fits your workflow better
About Zen Browser
Zen Browser Zen is a firefox based browser with the aim of pushing your productivity to a new level! Download • Website • Documentation • Release Notes Firefox Versions Release Is currently built using Firefox version 155.0.1 ! Twilight Is currently built using Firefox version RC 155.0.1 ! Contributing If you'd like to report a bug, please do so on our GitHub Issues page and for feature requests, you can use GitHub Discussions. Zen is an open source project, and we welcome contributions from the community! Please take a look at the contribution guidelines before getting started! Partners Thanks to all the…
read the full Zen Browser overview →
About arc
Arc Open, SQL native time series database for telemetry you need to keep. Arc ingests 34M+ records/sec, stores data as standard Parquet on infrastructure you own, and lets you query recent and historical data together. InfluxDB Line Protocol and Telegraf compatible. Single binary. AGPL 3.0. Prefer a UI? Arc Launchpad is a self hosted web console for the Arc instances you run — SQL console, schema explorer, logs, monitoring, and management for tokens, retention, alerts, continuous queries, and MQTT ingestion. Deploy it alongside Arc with Docker Compose. Docs. Prefer a terminal? arcli is the Arc command line —…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zen Browser or arc more popular?
Zen Browser has 45,554 GitHub stars and arc has 689. Zen Browser has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zen Browser and arc free?
Both are open source. Zen Browser is licensed under MPL-2.0 and arc under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zen Browser and arc?
Zen Browser is written in C++ and arc in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Zen Browser or arc?
Choose Zen Browser if you want the larger community (45,554 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose arc if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.