What is the main difference between Flow and Helium?

Flow and Helium are both web browsers but differ in their approach, features, and target audience. Compare their GitHub stats, technology stack, and community adoption to make the best choice.

Which is better: Flow or Helium?

The choice between Flow and Helium depends on your specific needs, technical requirements, and team preferences. Both are quality open source solutions with active communities.

Can I migrate from Flow to Helium?

Migration between Flow and Helium is possible but requires careful planning. Consider data export/import capabilities, feature parity, and potential workflow changes.

Stellar Hosted – Managed Open Source software hosting in the EU: secure, compliant, fast.

Learn more

Flow vs Helium

Learn how Flow and Helium differ in their key features, development activity, technology stack and community adoption, so you can decide which of these web browsers is best for you.

Flow

A modern browser combining minimalist design with smart features like profiles, spaces, and command palette. Full Chrome extension support and privacy-focused browsing.

Visit Flow Read more

1,092stars+14(+1.3%)

Last 30 days

Last commit
5 months ago
Repository age
2 years
Version
v0.12.0
License
GPL-3.0
Repository
flow-browser

Helium

Chromium-based desktop browser with default ad and tracker blocking, no analytics, native !bangs, split view, and full MV2 extension support.

Visit Helium Read more

22,283stars+1,109(+5.2%)

Last 30 days

Last commit
18 hours ago
Repository age
2 years
Version
0.20.3
License
GPL-3.0
Repository
imputnet/helium

Detailed Comparison

Helium appears to have several advantages over Flow, particularly in popularity, growth and activity. Consider your specific needs regarding popularity, growth, activity, technology, maturity, licensing and features when making your decision.

Helium wins

Community & Popularity

Helium significantly outpaces Flow in community adoption with 22,283 stars compared to 1,092 stars on GitHub. This 20.4x difference suggests Helium has a much larger and more active community. In terms of developer contributions, Helium has 680 forks, indicating moderate developer engagement.

Helium wins

Growth Momentum

Helium is growing faster, adding 1,109 stars in the last 30 days (+5.2%) against adding 14 stars for Flow (+1.3%). Helium is both larger and pulling further ahead.

Helium wins

Development Activity

Helium shows more recent development activity with its last commit 18 hours ago, while Flow was last updated 5 months ago. This suggests Helium is being more actively maintained.

Comparable

Technology Stack

Both tools share common technology foundations, being built with JavaScript. However, they differ in their additional technology choices: Flow uses CSS, Typescript, JSX while Helium leverages Bash, Python.

Comparable