head to head · open source
Zen Browser vs markdown-viewer
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars, 1,946 forks, 689 open issues and last shipped yesterday. markdown-viewer has 1,723 stars, 234 forks, 99 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. Zen Browser leads on adoption by 2,542% (45,517 vs 1,723 stars). Zen Browser is written in C++ under MPL-2.0; markdown-viewer is written in JavaScript under MIT. Zen Browser has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, markdown-viewer 14%. Zen Browser was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (firefox), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | markdown-viewer | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2025-12-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 234 |
| 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 markdown-viewer if
- You want the markdown-viewer feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and markdown-viewer 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 markdown-viewer
Markdown Viewer / Browser Extension Install: [Chrome] / [Firefox] / [Edge] / [Opera] / [Brave] / [Chromium] / [Vivaldi] Features Secure by design Render local and remote file URLs Granular access to remote origins Multiple markdown parsers Full control over the compiler options ([markdown it], [marked], [remark]) 30+ Themes ([cleanrmd], [GitHub][github theme]) Custom theme support GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) Auto reload on file change Syntax highlighted code blocks ([prism][prism]) Table of Contents (ToC) MathJax formulas ([mathjax]) Mermaid diagrams ([mermaid]) Convert emoji shortnames (icons provided free…
read the full markdown-viewer overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zen Browser or markdown-viewer more popular?
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars and markdown-viewer has 1,723. Zen Browser has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zen Browser and markdown-viewer free?
Both are open source. Zen Browser is licensed under MPL-2.0 and markdown-viewer under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zen Browser and markdown-viewer?
Zen Browser is written in C++ and markdown-viewer in JavaScript. 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 markdown-viewer?
Choose Zen Browser if you want the larger community (45,517 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose markdown-viewer if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.