head to head · open source
Zen Browser vs finicky
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars, 1,946 forks, 689 open issues and last shipped yesterday. finicky has 5,241 stars, 227 forks, 53 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. Zen Browser leads on adoption by 768% (45,517 vs 5,241 stars). Zen Browser is written in C++ under MPL-2.0; finicky is written in Go under MIT. Zen Browser has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, finicky 4%. 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 | finicky | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 5.2K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 227 |
| 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 finicky if
- You want the finicky feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and finicky 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 finicky
Always open the right browser Finicky is a macOS application that allows you to set up rules that decide which browser is opened for every url. With Finicky as your default browser, you can tell it to open Bluesky or Reddit in one browser, and LinkedIn or Google Meet in another. Route any URL to your preferred browser with powerful matching rules Automatically edit URLs before opening them (e.g., force HTTPS, remove tracking parameters) Write rules in JavaScript or TypeScript for complete control Create complex routing logic with regular expressions and custom functions Handle multiple browsers and apps with a…
read the full finicky 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 finicky more popular?
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars and finicky has 5,241. Zen Browser has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zen Browser and finicky free?
Both are open source. Zen Browser is licensed under MPL-2.0 and finicky under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zen Browser and finicky?
Zen Browser is written in C++ and finicky 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 finicky?
Choose Zen Browser if you want the larger community (45,517 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose finicky if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.