head to head · open source
Zen Browser vs web-ext
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars, 1,946 forks, 689 open issues and last shipped yesterday. web-ext has 3,152 stars, 392 forks, 223 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zen Browser leads on adoption by 1,344% (45,517 vs 3,152 stars). Zen Browser is written in C++ under MPL-2.0; web-ext is written in JavaScript under MPL-2.0. Zen Browser has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, web-ext 12%. 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 | web-ext | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 3.2K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 392 |
| 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 web-ext if
- You want the web-ext feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and web-ext 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 web-ext
Web ext This is a command line tool to help build, run, and test WebExtensions. Ultimately, it aims to support browser extensions in a standard, portable, cross platform way. Initially, it will provide a streamlined experience for developing Firefox Extensions. Documentation [Getting started with web ext][web ext user docs] Command reference Here are the commands you can run. Click on each one for detailed documentation or use help on the command line, such as web ext build help . run Run the extension lint Validate the extension source sign Sign the extension so it can be installed in Firefox build Create an…
read the full web-ext overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zen Browser or web-ext more popular?
Zen Browser has 45,517 GitHub stars and web-ext has 3,152. Zen Browser has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zen Browser and web-ext free?
Both are open source. Zen Browser is licensed under MPL-2.0 and web-ext under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zen Browser and web-ext?
Zen Browser is written in C++ and web-ext 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 web-ext?
Choose Zen Browser if you want the larger community (45,517 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose web-ext if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.