head to head · open source
Zen Browser vs chromium
Zen Browser has 45,509 GitHub stars, 1,943 forks, 689 open issues and last shipped yesterday. chromium has 25,223 stars, 9,398 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zen Browser leads on adoption by 80% (45,509 vs 25,223 stars). Zen Browser is written in C++ under MPL-2.0; chromium is written in various languages under BSD-3-Clause. Zen Browser has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, chromium 37%. chromium 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 | chromium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 25K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | C++ | — |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 9.4K |
| 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 chromium if
- You want the chromium feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- You evaluated both and chromium 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 chromium
Chromium Chromium is an open source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all users to experience the web. The project's web site is To check out the source code locally, don't use git clone ! Instead, follow the instructions on how to get the code. Documentation in the source is rooted in docs/README.md. Learn how to Get Around the Chromium Source Code Directory Structure. For historical reasons, there are some small top level directories. Now the guidance is that new top level directories are for product (e.g. Chrome, Android WebView, Ash). Even if these products have…
read the full chromium overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zen Browser or chromium more popular?
Zen Browser has 45,509 GitHub stars and chromium has 25,223. Zen Browser has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zen Browser and chromium free?
Both are open source. Zen Browser is licensed under MPL-2.0 and chromium under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zen Browser and chromium?
Zen Browser is written in C++ and chromium 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, Zen Browser or chromium?
Choose Zen Browser if you want the larger community (45,509 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose chromium if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.