Ladybird (web browser)
Open-source web browser
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ladybird is an open-source web browser developed by the Ladybird Browser Initiative, a nonprofit organization focused on development of the browser.[1] It is licensed under the BSD 2-Clause License.[2] An alpha release is planned in 2026,[3][4] beta release is expected in 2027, and a stable release for general public in 2028.[5] Originally a component of SerenityOS, it is now being developed as a standalone project.[6] The initiative is funded entirely through donations, with Cloudflare, FUTO, Shopify, and 37signals among its sponsors.
| Ladybird | |
|---|---|
| |
.png) Ladybird, showing the main page of Wikipedia | |
| Original author | Andreas Kling |
| Developer | Ladybird Browser Initiative |
| Written in | C++ |
| Engines |
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| Operating system | |
| Available in | English |
| Type | Web browser |
| License | BSD 2-Clause License |
| Website | ladybird |
| Repository | |
Features
Ladybird uses a new browser engine called LibWeb that is being created from scratch by the development team. Unlike SerenityOS, it will also use other open source libraries for development.[2] An ad blocking feature is planned.[7] Unlike most new web browsers, Ladybird does not rely on Chromium or Firefox and uses its own rendering engine and JavaScript engine.[8]
History
The project was initially developed by the SerenityOS community[9] using its internal software libraries implementing specific features (with self-descriptive names prefixed with “Lib”, e.g. LibWeb, LibHTTP, LibJS, or LibWasm). Ladybird was spun off into a separate project in September 2022 by Andreas Kling, the founder and a former maintainer of the SerenityOS project.[10]
On June 30, 2024, Kling announced that he would be stepping back from the SerenityOS project to focus solely on building the Ladybird browser.[9][6] In July 2024 the Ladybird Browser Initiative announced that it was being funded by Chris Wanstrath, the co-founder of GitHub.[7][4] Ladybird began receiving sponsorships to fund its development including from large companies such as Shopify and Proton VPN.[8]
As of March 2025, it ranked fourth-highest on the Web Platform Tests, a suite of tests used by browser developers, below Chrome, Safari and Firefox.[8] It also had the second most conformant JavaScript engine after Firefox's SpiderMonkey.[8][11]
In February of 2026, Ladybird started porting the JavaScript parser and bytecode generator from C++ to Rust. The developer was assisted by Claude Code and OpenAI Codex artificial intelligence.[12][13]
