How Established and Actively Maintained Is Mue?

Updated

Mue is an established, actively developed open-source new tab extension. The project has been maintained since 2018, reports 10,000+ monthly active users, and shows public development activity on GitHub through 50+ collaborators, 700+ GitHub stars, 70+ forks, and an open issue tracker. That combination—years of continuous maintenance, a real user base, and transparent development—makes it a reasonable choice if you want a customizable new tab page and value community-backed, open-source software. If you need enterprise support contracts or a vendor with formal SLAs, Mue is not positioned as that kind of product.

What the maturity signals mean

Mue's own site presents several indicators that are useful for judging whether a project is alive and worth adopting:

Signal Reported value What it tells you
Maintained since 2018 The project has survived multiple browser release cycles, a common failure point for extensions
Monthly active users 10,000+ A real, if modest, user base rather than a launch-day experiment
Tabs opened 10M+ Sustained usage over time, not just installs
Collaborators 50+ More than a single maintainer, reducing bus-factor risk
GitHub stars 700+ Community interest and visibility
GitHub forks 70+ Some level of code reuse and contribution interest
First version 2018 Consistent with the "maintained since" claim

These figures come from the project's homepage. They are self-reported, so treat them as directional rather than audited metrics. The GitHub repository is the place to verify current activity directly.

How to check that it is actively maintained today

Before adopting any extension, confirm activity yourself rather than relying on a homepage counter. A practical check:

  1. Open the Mue GitHub repository (linked from the site as "View Mue on GitHub").
  2. Look at the date of the most recent commit and the most recent release. Recent activity within the last few months suggests active maintenance.
  3. Open the issues list ("See open issues" on the site) and check whether maintainers respond to reports. A high number of open issues is normal for a popular project; what matters is whether they are being triaged and closed.
  4. Check the contributor graph to confirm the 50+ collaborator claim and see whether contributions are spread across people or concentrated in one maintainer.
  5. Confirm the extension is still listed and updated on your browser's official store, since store review dates reflect ongoing releases.

Expected result: you should see commits, releases, and issue responses within a recent window. If the newest activity is many months old, treat the "actively maintained" claim with caution.

Who should feel comfortable adopting it

  • You want a free, open-source new tab replacement. The site describes Mue as free to use and open source, with no tracking and data stored on device. The open codebase means you or others can inspect what it does.
  • You care about community input. Development is described as open, with users contributing code, ideas, and issue reports. If you like the idea of influencing a tool's direction, that model fits.
  • You want a track record. A project running since 2018 with 10,000+ monthly users has passed the "will this disappear next month" test better than a new release.

Where the signals are weaker

  • Scale is modest. 10,000+ monthly users and 700+ stars indicate a healthy niche project, not a mass-market product. Support comes from the community, not a dedicated support team.
  • Metrics are self-reported. The user and tab counts are marketing figures on the homepage. Verify code activity on GitHub if maintenance cadence matters to you.
  • No pricing or paid tier is mentioned. The site describes the extension as free; nothing in the provided material indicates paid plans or account requirements. Do not assume additional paid services exist.

Bottom line

Mue looks like a genuinely maintained, community-driven open-source project with a multi-year track record and real usage. The sensible next step is a five-minute check of its GitHub commit and issue activity, then installing it from your browser's official store if the recent activity looks healthy.