About Servo
Servo is a prototype of a browser engine, built with the Rust programming language. Its goal is to give developers a lightweight, high-performance way to embed web technologies inside their own applications instead of building on a full browser. The project's repository dates back to 2012, and the code is published under the Mozilla Public License 2.0.
Servo is developed and tested on 64-bit macOS, Linux and Windows, as well as Android and OpenHarmony. A reference browser shell, servoshell, can be built from source with the project's mach tool after installing Rust, uv and a few platform dependencies. The Servo Book covers building and usage, and the community coordinates through GitHub issues, a Zulip chat and public video calls. Contributions are open to everyone.
Key features
- Browser engine written in Rust
- Designed for embedding in other applications
- Runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Android and OpenHarmony
- servoshell reference browser built with mach
- Parallel engine architecture
- Documentation in the Servo Book
Good fit for
- →Embedding web rendering in a desktop or mobile app
- →Experimenting with a memory-safe browser engine
- Built with
- Rust
- Tags
- browser-engine
- rust
- web-engine
- embeddable
- browser
- open-source
Servo: questions and answers
- What is Servo used for?
- Servo is an open-source browser engine written in Rust, aimed at developers who want to embed web technologies in their applications. It is a good fit for embedding web rendering in a desktop or mobile app and experimenting with a memory-safe browser engine.
- Is Servo open source?
- Yes. Servo is open source under the MPL-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at servo/servo and is written mainly in Rust.
- Is Servo free?
- Yes. Servo is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
- Can I self-host Servo?
- Yes. Servo can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
- What are some alternatives to Servo?
- Similar open-source tools in the Productivity category include Ladybird, Ungoogled Chromium and Chromium. SaaS products in the same category include canihavesex.today, ClaudeUsageBar and Google Chrome.
- Is Servo actively maintained?
- Yes. The most recent commit to Servo was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v0.6.0, published on 29 September 2026. The project has 38k stars on GitHub.
Open-source alternatives to Servo
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Ladybird
Productivity
Truly independent web browser
BSD-2-Clausevs Google Chrome★ 66kUngoogled Chromium
Productivity
Google Chromium, sans integration with Google
BSD-3-Clausevs Google Chrome★ 28k
Chromium
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The official GitHub mirror of the Chromium source
BSD-3-Clausevs Google Chrome★ 25k
Firefox
Productivity
The official repository of Mozilla's Firefox web browser.
OSSvs Google Chrome★ 13k
Floorp
Productivity
All of source code of Floorp 12, the most Advanced and Fastest Firefox derivative 🦊
MPL-2.0vs Google Chrome★ 8.4k
Waterfox
Productivity
The official Waterfox 💧 source code repository
OSSvs Google Chrome★ 6.3k
SaaS alternatives to Servo
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canihavesex.today
Productivity
Cycle tracking app based on the symptothermal method, with a self-hosting option
SaaS
ClaudeUsageBar
Productivity
macOS menu bar app that shows your Claude and Claude Code usage limits at a glance
SaaS
Google Chrome
Productivity
Web browser from Google with profile sync, extensions and built-in translation
SaaS
Microsoft Edge
Productivity
Chromium-based web browser from Microsoft with sidebar tools and Copilot
SaaS
1% Better
Productivity
Habit tracker mobile app that visualises how small daily progress compounds over time
SaaS
1 Pixel Workout
Productivity
Site blocker that swaps distracting scrolling for short 60-second workouts
SaaS

