head to head · open source
Zen Browser vs nanobrowser
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars, 1,946 forks, 689 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nanobrowser has 14,222 stars, 1,521 forks, 81 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. Zen Browser leads on adoption by 220% (45,517 vs 14,222 stars). Zen Browser is written in C++ under MPL-2.0; nanobrowser is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Zen Browser has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, nanobrowser 11%. 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 | nanobrowser | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 14K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| 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 nanobrowser if
- You want the nanobrowser feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and nanobrowser 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 nanobrowser
🌐 Nanobrowser Nanobrowser is an open source AI web automation tool that runs in your browser. A free alternative to OpenAI Operator with flexible LLM options and multi agent system. ⬇️ Get Nanobrowser from Chrome Web Store for free 👏 Join the community in Discord X 🌟 Loving Nanobrowser? Give us a star and help spread the word! ❤️ Support the project by sponsoring us every contribution helps keep Nanobrowser free and open source! Nanobrowser's multi agent system analyzing HuggingFace in real time, with the Planner intelligently self correcting when encountering obstacles and dynamically instructing the…
read the full nanobrowser overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zen Browser or nanobrowser more popular?
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars and nanobrowser has 14,222. Zen Browser has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zen Browser and nanobrowser free?
Both are open source. Zen Browser is licensed under MPL-2.0 and nanobrowser under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zen Browser and nanobrowser?
Zen Browser is written in C++ and nanobrowser 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 nanobrowser?
Choose Zen Browser if you want the larger community (45,517 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose nanobrowser if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.