head to head · open source
Zen Browser vs Thorium-Android
Zen Browser has 45,509 GitHub stars, 1,943 forks, 689 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Thorium-Android has 802 stars, 14 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped 23 days ago. Zen Browser leads on adoption by 5,574% (45,509 vs 802 stars). Zen Browser is written in C++ under MPL-2.0; Thorium-Android is written in various languages under BSD-3-Clause. Zen Browser has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, Thorium-Android 2%. 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 | Thorium-Android | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 802 |
| License | MPL-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | C++ | — |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 14 |
| 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 Thorium-Android if
- You want the Thorium-Android feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- You evaluated both and Thorium-Android 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 Thorium-Android
Thorium Browser for Android – Simply a seperate repo to serve builds of Thorium for Android. Both arm32 and arm64 are supported. The main repo (and Linux builds) are located at Thanks for using Thorium!
read the full Thorium-Android overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zen Browser or Thorium-Android more popular?
Zen Browser has 45,509 GitHub stars and Thorium-Android has 802. Zen Browser has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zen Browser and Thorium-Android free?
Both are open source. Zen Browser is licensed under MPL-2.0 and Thorium-Android under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zen Browser and Thorium-Android?
Zen Browser is written in C++ and Thorium-Android in various languages. 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 Thorium-Android?
Choose Zen Browser if you want the larger community (45,509 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose Thorium-Android if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.