head to head · open source
CloakBrowser vs ArchiveBox
CloakBrowser has 31,596 GitHub stars, 2,619 forks, 227 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ArchiveBox has 28,553 stars, 1,604 forks, 160 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. CloakBrowser leads on adoption by 11% (31,596 vs 28,553 stars). CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT; ArchiveBox is written in Python under MIT. CloakBrowser has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, ArchiveBox 6%. ArchiveBox was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (chromium, headless-browser), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| CloakBrowser | ArchiveBox | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 29K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick CloakBrowser if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ArchiveBox if
- You want the ArchiveBox feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and ArchiveBox fits your workflow better
About CloakBrowser
CloakBrowser is a stealth Chromium build for Python and JavaScript teams that need browser automation to survive bot detection systems, aimed at scraping and AI agent engineers who want to replace Playwright or Puppeteer without rewriting their code.
read the full CloakBrowser overview →
About ArchiveBox
ArchiveBox is an open source, self hosted web archiving application that lets individuals and organizations preserve public and private web content in durable, readable formats while keeping control of their own data.
read the full ArchiveBox overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloakBrowser or ArchiveBox more popular?
CloakBrowser has 31,596 GitHub stars and ArchiveBox has 28,553. CloakBrowser has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloakBrowser and ArchiveBox free?
Both are open source. CloakBrowser is licensed under MIT and ArchiveBox under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CloakBrowser and ArchiveBox?
CloakBrowser is written in Python and ArchiveBox in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, CloakBrowser or ArchiveBox?
Choose CloakBrowser if you want the larger community (31,596 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ArchiveBox if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.