head to head · open source
Zen Browser vs favbox
Zen Browser has 45,509 GitHub stars, 1,943 forks, 689 open issues and last shipped yesterday. favbox has 772 stars, 38 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. Zen Browser leads on adoption by 5,795% (45,509 vs 772 stars). Zen Browser is written in C++ under MPL-2.0; favbox is written in Vue under MIT. Zen Browser has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, favbox 5%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Zen Browser | favbox | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 772 |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | Vue |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 38 |
| 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 favbox if
- You want the favbox feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Vue
- You evaluated both and favbox 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 favbox
FavBox FavBox is a local first experimental browser extension that enhances and simplifies bookmark management without cloud storage or third party services. It extends your browser's native bookmarking features. Key features: 🔄 Syncs with your browser profile \ 🔒 No third‑party data sharing. No ads. No tracking. \ 🎨 Minimalist, clean UI\ 🏷️ Tag support for easy organization\ 🔍 Advanced search, sorting, and filtering by tags, domains, folders, and keywords\ 🌁 Multiple display modes\ 🌗 Light and dark themes\ 🗑️ Detects broken and duplicate bookmarks\ ⌨️ Hotkeys for quick search access\ 🗒️ Local notes…
read the full favbox overview →
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More Browsers & Extensions projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Browsers & Extensions field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Zen Browser or favbox more popular?
Zen Browser has 45,509 GitHub stars and favbox has 772. Zen Browser has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zen Browser and favbox free?
Both are open source. Zen Browser is licensed under MPL-2.0 and favbox under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zen Browser and favbox?
Zen Browser is written in C++ and favbox in Vue. 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 favbox?
Choose Zen Browser if you want the larger community (45,509 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose favbox if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.