head to head · open source
dots vs ArchiveBox
dots has 32,357 GitHub stars, 4,739 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. ArchiveBox has 28,927 stars, 1,625 forks, 157 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dots leads on adoption by 12% (32,357 vs 28,927 stars). dots is written in TypeScript under MIT; ArchiveBox is written in Python under MIT. dots has attracted 15% 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.
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
| dots | ArchiveBox | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 29K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.7K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick dots if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- 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 dots
dots Every AI agent is a model and a browser. You can swap the model with one flag. The browser is what the website sees. Windows, in PowerShell: Linux: Then open The conversation on the left, the browser on the right, live. It all comes down to the browser When a web agent fails, the model is rarely why. The page never loaded, a challenge appeared, the login expired, the click did not land. All of that happens in the browser, before the model gets to think. So dots is built around one: A real Firefox engine, patched in C++. The fingerprint is decided inside the engine, not painted over with JavaScript that a…
About ArchiveBox
ArchiveBox Open source self hosted web archiving. ▶️ Quickstart Demo GitHub Documentation Info & Motivation Community ArchiveBox is a self hosted app that lets you preserve content from websites in a variety of formats. We aim to make your data immediately useful, and kept in formats that other programs can read directly. As output, we save standard HTML, PNG, PDF, TXT, JSON, WARC, SQLite, all guaranteed to be readable for decades to come. ArchiveBox also has a CLI, REST API, and webhooks so you can set up integrations with other services. Without active preservation effort, everything on the internet eventually…
read the full ArchiveBox overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is dots or ArchiveBox more popular?
dots has 32,357 GitHub stars and ArchiveBox has 28,927. dots has the larger community by that measure.
Are dots and ArchiveBox free?
Both are open source. dots is licensed under MIT and ArchiveBox under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between dots and ArchiveBox?
dots is written in TypeScript 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, dots or ArchiveBox?
Choose dots if you want the larger community (32,357 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ArchiveBox if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.