head to head · open source
Ladybird vs Zen Browser
Ladybird has 66,807 GitHub stars, 3,194 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zen Browser has 45,517 stars, 1,946 forks, 689 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ladybird leads on adoption by 47% (66,807 vs 45,517 stars). Ladybird is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause; Zen Browser is written in C++ under MPL-2.0. Ladybird has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Zen Browser 4%. Ladybird 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
| Ladybird | Zen Browser | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 67K | ★ 46K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 1.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Ladybird if
- You weight community size — 67K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Zen Browser if
- You want the Zen Browser feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and Zen Browser fits your workflow better
About Ladybird
Ladybird Ladybird is a truly independent web browser, using a novel engine based on web standards. [!IMPORTANT] Ladybird is in a pre alpha state, and only suitable for use by developers Features We aim to build a complete, usable browser for the modern web. Ladybird uses a multi process architecture with a main UI process, several WebContent renderer processes, an ImageDecoder process, and a RequestServer process. Image decoding and network connections are done out of process to be more robust against malicious content. Each tab has its own renderer process, which is sandboxed from the rest of the system. At the…
read the full Ladybird overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ladybird or Zen Browser more popular?
Ladybird has 66,807 GitHub stars and Zen Browser has 45,517. Ladybird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ladybird and Zen Browser free?
Both are open source. Ladybird is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Zen Browser under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ladybird and Zen Browser?
Ladybird is written in C++ and Zen Browser in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Ladybird or Zen Browser?
Choose Ladybird if you want the larger community (66,807 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose Zen Browser if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.