head to head · open source
Zen Browser vs jose
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars, 1,946 forks, 689 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jose has 7,861 stars, 381 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zen Browser leads on adoption by 479% (45,517 vs 7,861 stars). Zen Browser is written in C++ under MPL-2.0; jose is written in TypeScript under MIT. Zen Browser has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, jose 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 | jose | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 7.9K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 381 |
| 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 jose if
- You want the jose feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and jose 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 jose
jose jose is a JavaScript module for JSON Object Signing and Encryption, providing support for JSON Web Tokens (JWT), JSON Web Signature (JWS), JSON Web Encryption (JWE), JSON Web Key (JWK), JSON Web Key Set (JWKS), and more. The module is designed to work across various Web interoperable runtimes including Node.js, browsers, Cloudflare Workers, Deno, Bun, and others. Sponsor If you want to quickly add JWT authentication to JavaScript apps, feel free to check out Auth0's JavaScript SDK and free plan. [Create an Auth0 account; it's free!][sponsor auth0] 💗 Help the project Support from the community to continue…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zen Browser or jose more popular?
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars and jose has 7,861. Zen Browser has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zen Browser and jose free?
Both are open source. Zen Browser is licensed under MPL-2.0 and jose under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zen Browser and jose?
Zen Browser is written in C++ and jose 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 jose?
Choose Zen Browser if you want the larger community (45,517 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose jose if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.