head to head · open source
Zen Browser vs plasmo
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars, 1,946 forks, 689 open issues and last shipped yesterday. plasmo has 13,172 stars, 466 forks, 371 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Zen Browser leads on adoption by 246% (45,517 vs 13,172 stars). Zen Browser is written in C++ under MPL-2.0; plasmo is written in TypeScript under MIT. Zen Browser has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, plasmo 4%. 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 | plasmo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 13K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 466 |
| 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 plasmo if
- You want the plasmo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and plasmo 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 plasmo
English 简体中文 Tiếng Việt Deutsch French Indonesian Русский Turkish 日本語 한국어 Production Cloud: We've built a cloud offering for browser extensions called Itero. Check it out if you want instant beta testing and more awesome features. Plasmo Framework The Plasmo Framework is a battery packed browser extension SDK made by hackers for hackers. Build your product and stop worrying about config files and the odd peculiarities of building browser extensions. It's like Next.js for browser extensions! Highlighted Features First class React + Typescript Support Declarative Development Content Scripts UI Tab Pages Live…
read the full plasmo overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zen Browser or plasmo more popular?
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars and plasmo has 13,172. Zen Browser has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zen Browser and plasmo free?
Both are open source. Zen Browser is licensed under MPL-2.0 and plasmo under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zen Browser and plasmo?
Zen Browser is written in C++ and plasmo 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 plasmo?
Choose Zen Browser if you want the larger community (45,517 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose plasmo if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.