Productivity · Updated October 2026
Google Chrome is Google's web browser. If you would rather own your tools, here are 4 open source alternatives to Google Chrome, ranked by GitHub stars. Each one is free to use under its license, and you can read, change, and often self-host the code.
Ladybird is both the most popular, with 66.6k stars, and the most recently updated, with a commit on Oct 21, 2026.
| Project | Stars | License | Language | Last commit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ladybird | 66.6k | BSD-2-Clause | C++ | Oct 21, 2026 |
 Zen Browser | 45.1k | MPL-2.0 | C++ | Oct 21, 2026 |
 Brave | 23.9k | MPL-2.0 | — | Oct 21, 2026 |
 Helium | 21.8k | GPL-3.0 | C++ | Oct 21, 2026 |
by LadybirdBrowser
Truly independent web browser
by zen-browser
Welcome to a calmer internet
by brave
Brave browser for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows.
by imputnet
Private, fast, and honest web browser
By GitHub stars, Ladybird is the most popular open source alternative to Google Chrome right now, with 66.6k stars, followed by Zen Browser and Brave. The best fit depends on your setup, so compare their licenses, languages, and recent activity in the table above.
Yes. All 4 projects on this page are open source, so the software itself is free to use, study, and change. Some of them also sell a hosted version or paid support.
Ladybird (last commit Oct 21, 2026), Helium (last commit Oct 21, 2026), and Brave (last commit Oct 21, 2026) have the most recent commits. Licenses on this list include BSD-2-Clause, MPL-2.0, and GPL-3.0.
