head to head · open source
Zen Browser vs maxurl
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars, 1,946 forks, 689 open issues and last shipped yesterday. maxurl has 1,655 stars, 102 forks, 425 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zen Browser leads on adoption by 2,650% (45,517 vs 1,655 stars). Zen Browser is written in C++ under MPL-2.0; maxurl is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. Zen Browser has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, maxurl 6%. 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 | maxurl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 102 |
| 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 maxurl if
- You want the maxurl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and maxurl 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 maxurl
English Português (Brasil) Image Max URL is a program that will try to find larger/original versions of images and videos, usually by replacing URL patterns. It currently contains support for \ 10,000 hardcoded websites (full list in sites.txt), but it also supports a number of generic engines (such as Wordpress and MediaWiki), which means it can work for many other websites as well. It is currently released as: Userscript: (most browsers) Stable: userscript smaller.user.js or OpenUserJS Development: userscript.user.js (recommended) It serves as the base for everything listed below. It also serves as a node…
read the full maxurl overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zen Browser or maxurl more popular?
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars and maxurl has 1,655. Zen Browser has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zen Browser and maxurl free?
Both are open source. Zen Browser is licensed under MPL-2.0 and maxurl under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zen Browser and maxurl?
Zen Browser is written in C++ and maxurl 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 maxurl?
Choose Zen Browser if you want the larger community (45,517 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose maxurl if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.