head to head · open source
Zen Browser vs gosub-engine
Zen Browser has 45,509 GitHub stars, 1,943 forks, 689 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gosub-engine has 3,690 stars, 185 forks, 43 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Zen Browser leads on adoption by 1,133% (45,509 vs 3,690 stars). Zen Browser is written in C++ under MPL-2.0; gosub-engine is written in Rust under MIT. Zen Browser has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, gosub-engine 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.
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Side by side
| Zen Browser | gosub-engine | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 185 |
| 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 gosub-engine if
- You want the gosub-engine feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and gosub-engine 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 gosub-engine
Gosub Browser Engine An embeddable, async browser engine written in Rust. Join us on our development Zulip chat, or our Discord server for general chat. If you'd like to contribute, start with the contribution guide. About Gosub is a modular, embeddable browser engine. The primary entry point is GosubEngine in the gosub engine crate. You provide a render backend and a compositor; the engine owns a multi zone/tab model, an async networking stack, cookie and storage isolation per zone, and an event bus. Your user agent (UA) drives everything via TabCommand and reacts to EngineEvent . Core components: For the full…
read the full gosub-engine overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zen Browser or gosub-engine more popular?
Zen Browser has 45,509 GitHub stars and gosub-engine has 3,690. Zen Browser has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zen Browser and gosub-engine free?
Both are open source. Zen Browser is licensed under MPL-2.0 and gosub-engine under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zen Browser and gosub-engine?
Zen Browser is written in C++ and gosub-engine in Rust. 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 gosub-engine?
Choose Zen Browser if you want the larger community (45,509 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose gosub-engine if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.