Nordstjernen is a web browser, written from scratch in C, focused on supporting the HTML and CSS standards. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, with builds for Android, iOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD and the JVM. Nordstjernen is built in Norway.
Nordstjernen Browser version 1.0.21 released! The source-available flagship — Media Queries Level 4, in-engine SVG, and HLS/DASH streaming. Read the announcement · More info here.
Northstar Browser version 1.0.5 released! The GPL-licensed, more minimalist sibling — now with in-engine SVG and MPEG-1 video. Read the announcement · More info here.
HTML Standard. Behaviour is measured against the spec text, section by section, not against another browser — 140 spec rows fully implemented, 31 partial and 0 absent across WHATWG HTML sections 1–16 (July 2026). No element or API row is fully absent any more: every one is implemented, partial, or a deliberate non-goal. Against the Web Platform Tests, the full wpt-fast tree now passes 88.4% of subtests overall — 91.7% of the HTML suite — and QuickJS runs the test262 conformance suite clean. See docs/HTML-compatibility.md.
Secure. Process-per-tab design — each tab runs in its own sandboxed renderer process (seccomp + Landlock on Linux), talking to the UI over IPC and shared-memory framebuffers · no JIT.
Minimalism. The whole engine is about 160,000 lines of project C and headers, excluding the vendored libraries and generated assets — small enough for one person to read and audit end-to-end.
Capable. JavaScript on QuickJS with Canvas 2D, WebCrypto, Service Workers and the Navigation API · an experimental V8 backend behind -Djs_engine=v8 · WebAssembly via WAMR · WebGL 1 & 2, enabled by default since 1.0.20 · inline <video> (MPEG-1 always, WebM/VP9 where FFmpeg is present) with WebVTT captions, and HLS and DASH streams fed through Media Source Extensions · in-engine SVG with masks and markers · presentation MathML · on-device safe browsing against a local blocklist.
Private. No telemetry and no update pings. Since 1.0.21 the client hints identify Nordstjernen as itself rather than impersonating Chrome, and --private starts a private-browsing session. Cookies are partitioned, and the safe-browsing check never leaves your machine.
Nordstjernen has no JIT so it is much more secure, and can still be fast enough. It ships no telemetry of any kind, and deliberately includes no AI assistant and no AI-style web APIs.
the Northstar browser
Northstar is the free-software sibling of Nordstjernen: a single-window, single-page, single-process desktop browser built from the same clean-room C engine, licensed under the GNU GPL, version 3 or later. It keeps the standards-first engine — lexbor, quickjs-ng (no JIT), WAMR, Wuffs — in about 141,000 lines of original C, and adds WebExtensions support, while leaving out multi-window browsing, per-tab renderer processes, WebGL and WebGPU. Since 1.0.5 it renders SVG in-engine, decodes WebP and APNG, and plays MPEG-1 <video> with play, pause and seeking. It runs on Linux, macOS and Windows, behind a Landlock filesystem sandbox and a default-deny seccomp filter on Linux. See the comparison table below for how the two browsers differ.
Read more about the innovations in the Nordstjernen web browser.
news
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.21 released — Media Queries Level 4, in-engine SVG, HLS and DASH streaming, a redesigned about:start, and honest client hints. Announcement » · Release notes »
- · Northstar 1.0.5 released — in-engine SVG, WebP/APNG, MPEG-1 video playback, and much better HTML, CSS and JavaScript compatibility. Announcement » · Release notes »
- · Northstar 1.0.4 released — a maintenance release. Release notes »
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.20 released — WebGL on by default, a blinking caret, site-compatibility and memory-safety work. Announcement » · Release notes »
- · Northstar 1.0.3 released — the GPL-licensed single-process edition: Media Queries Level 4, CSSOM used values, and use-after-free fixes. Announcement » · Release notes »
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.19 released — a big step in web-standards conformance, a new animated about:start splash, and a fresh iOS port. Announcement » · Release notes »
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.18 released — a maintenance release. Announcement » · Release notes »
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.17 released — a maintenance release. Announcement » · Release notes »
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.16 released — a maintenance release. Announcement » · Release notes »
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.15 released — a maintenance release. Announcement » · Release notes »
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.14 released — a maintenance release. Announcement » · Release notes »
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.12 released — a maintenance release. Release notes »
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.11 released — a maintenance release. Announcement » · Release notes »
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.0 released — the first stable release. Announcement » · Release notes »
specifications
Two browsers, one clean-room engine. Nordstjernen is the flagship multi-tab browser; Northstar is the GPL-licensed single-window, single-process edition.
Swipe the table sideways to see both browsers.
download
Latest tagged release: Nordstjernen 1.0.21 — released 28 July 2026. Builds for Windows, macOS and Linux — plus Debian, Ubuntu, openSUSE, Alpine, FreeBSD, NetBSD, a Java jar and the source — are all on the download page. Android is available on Google Play, and Windows on the Microsoft Store.
Northstar 1.0.5 — released 28 July 2026 — is on GitHub, with a Windows build and the GPL source.
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