head to head · open source
Zen Browser vs Recorder
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars, 1,946 forks, 689 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Recorder has 5,643 stars, 1,095 forks, 136 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Zen Browser leads on adoption by 707% (45,517 vs 5,643 stars). Zen Browser is written in C++ under MPL-2.0; Recorder is written in JavaScript under MIT. Zen Browser has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, Recorder 19%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Zen Browser | Recorder | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 5.6K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-07-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 Recorder if
- You want the Recorder feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and Recorder 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 Recorder
【源GitHub仓库】 【Gitee镜像库】本文档中默认使用github.io部署的链接，如果无法访问，请直接下载仓库源码到本地然后双击打开html文件访问。 :open book:Recorder用于html5录音 支持在大部分已实现 getUserMedia 的移动端、PC端浏览器麦克风录音、实时处理，主要包括：Chrome、Firefox、Safari、iOS 14.3+、Android WebView、腾讯Android X5内核(QQ、微信、小程序WebView)、Electron、大部分2021年后更新的Android手机自带浏览器、2024年后更新的Android版UC内核(UC、支付宝、钉钉)；不支持： 老旧国产手机自带浏览器、老旧iOS(11.0 14.2)上除Safari外的其他任何形式的浏览器 。 支持在非浏览器环境中使用部分功能（如nodejs、各种使用js来构建的程序），使用RecordApp可在微信小程序、uni app中直接录音。 支持对任意 MediaStream 进行音频录制、实时处理，包括： getUserMedia返回的流 、 WebRTC中的remote流 、 audio、video标签的captureStream方法返回的流 、 自己创建的流 等等。
read the full Recorder overview →
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More Browsers & Extensions projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Browsers & Extensions field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Zen Browser or Recorder more popular?
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars and Recorder has 5,643. Zen Browser has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zen Browser and Recorder free?
Both are open source. Zen Browser is licensed under MPL-2.0 and Recorder under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zen Browser and Recorder?
Zen Browser is written in C++ and Recorder 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 Recorder?
Choose Zen Browser if you want the larger community (45,517 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose Recorder if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.