Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 15, 2026

Ladybird (web browser)

Ladybird is an open-source web browser licensed under the BSD 2-Clause License. It is developed by the Ladybird Browser Initiative, a nonprofit organization focused solely on development of the browser. The initiative is funded entirely through donations, with Cloudflare, FUTO, Shopify, and 37signals among its sponsors.

Last revised
Jul 15, 2026
Read time
≈ 3 min
Length
648 w
Citations
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Source
Wikipedia ↗
Ladybird
Original authorAndreas Kling
DeveloperLadybird Browser Initiative
Written inC++
Engines
  • LibWeb
  • LibJS
Operating system
Available inEnglish
TypeWeb browser
LicenseBSD 2-Clause License
Websiteladybird.org Edit this on Wikidata
Repository

Ladybird is an open-source web browser licensed under the BSD 2-Clause License.1 It is developed by the Ladybird Browser Initiative, a nonprofit organization focused solely on development of the browser.2 The initiative is funded entirely through donations, with Cloudflare, FUTO, Shopify, and 37signals among its sponsors.

Originally created as a component of SerenityOS in 2019, matured to be developed as a standalone project since 2022.3 An alpha release is planned in 2026,45 beta release is expected in 2027, and a stable release for general public in 2028.6

It is a browser engine that is not based on existing browser engine (e.g. Chromium, Firefox, Safari). Ladybird uses its own rendering engine and JavaScript interpreter with WebAssembly support.7 The project uses popular open source libraries (unlike its predecessor in SerenityOS).1

An ad blocking feature will be implemented into the finished product.8

History

The project was initially developed by the SerenityOS community9 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.93 In July 2024 the Ladybird Browser Initiative announced that it was being funded by Chris Wanstrath, the co-founder of GitHub.85 Ladybird began receiving sponsorships to fund its development including from large companies such as Shopify and Proton VPN.7

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.7 It also had the second most conformant JavaScript engine after Firefox's SpiderMonkey.711

In February 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.1213

On June 5, 2026, the project announced they will no longer accept public pull requests nor allow any other channels for submitting patches from non-maintainers, citing concerns about lower-quality contributions and the need for better security as the browser gets closer its first alpha release – the code licence will be still available as open-source.14

References

References

  1. Anderson, Tim (2024-07-03). "Ladybird web browser now funded by GitHub co-founder, promises 'no code' from rivals". DEVCLASS. Archived from the original on 2024-09-20. Retrieved 2024-09-20.
  2. Kling, Andreas. "Announcing the Ladybird Browser Initiative". ladybird.org. Retrieved 2024-08-07.
  3. "Fork! Ladybird Browser And SerenityOS To Go Separate Ways". Hackaday. July 2, 2024.
  4. Kling, Andreas. "Ladybird FAQ's". ladybird.org. Retrieved 2024-08-21.
  5. Wallen, Jack (July 17, 2025). "This new browser won't monetize your every move - how to try it". ZDNET.
  6. World Wide Web Consortium (2024-09-25). "🐞Ladybird: A new, independent browser engine — written from scratch". w3.org. Archived from the original on 2024-09-17. Retrieved 2024-11-03.
  7. Conway, Adam (12 March 2025). "4 reasons Ladybird is the most exciting new browser currently in development". XDA.
  8. Förster, Moritz (July 4, 2024). "Ladybird web browser takes off: One million US dollars from GitHub founder". Heise. Retrieved 2024-09-20.
  9. Proven, Liam (17 October 2023). "Serenity OS turns five and emits first offspring, Ladybird". The Register. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
  10. "Ladybird browser spreads its wings". LWN.net. Archived from the original on 2024-09-26. Retrieved 2024-11-22.
  11. "This Month in Ladybird: February 2025". buttondown.com. Retrieved 2025-09-07.
  12. Kling, Andreas (February 23, 2026). "Ladybird adopts Rust, with help from AI". ladybird.org. Archived from the original on March 8, 2026. Retrieved March 16, 2026.
  13. corbet (February 23, 2026). "The Ladybird browser project shifts to Rust". Linux Weekly News. Archived from the original on March 5, 2026. Retrieved March 16, 2026.
  14. Kling, Andreas (June 5, 2026). "Changing How We Develop Ladybird". ladybird.org. Retrieved June 8, 2026.
External links