head to head · open source
Zen Browser vs canvas-editor
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars, 1,946 forks, 689 open issues and last shipped yesterday. canvas-editor has 5,250 stars, 873 forks, 34 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zen Browser leads on adoption by 767% (45,517 vs 5,250 stars). Zen Browser is written in C++ under MPL-2.0; canvas-editor is written in TypeScript under MIT. Zen Browser has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, canvas-editor 17%. Zen Browser 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 | canvas-editor | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 5.3K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 873 |
| 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 canvas-editor if
- You want the canvas-editor feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and canvas-editor 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 canvas-editor
Canvas Editor A Canvas/SVG based rich text editor. Live Demo · Documentation · Report Bug · Request Feature · Discussions English · 中文文档 🎉 Canvas Editor 1.0.0 is released! See the 1.0 Release Notes for highlights and upgrade notes. Overview Canvas Editor is a feature rich, WYSIWYG document editor built on top of the HTML API. It is designed for use cases that demand pixel perfect rendering, advanced typography, complex layouts, and Word like document experiences in the browser — including EMR (Electronic Medical Records), legal contracts, reports, and other document centric applications. Unlike traditional…
read the full canvas-editor overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zen Browser or canvas-editor more popular?
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars and canvas-editor has 5,250. Zen Browser has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zen Browser and canvas-editor free?
Both are open source. Zen Browser is licensed under MPL-2.0 and canvas-editor under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zen Browser and canvas-editor?
Zen Browser is written in C++ and canvas-editor in TypeScript. 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 canvas-editor?
Choose Zen Browser if you want the larger community (45,517 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose canvas-editor if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.