head to head · open source
ArchiveBox vs stagehand
ArchiveBox has 28,553 GitHub stars, 1,604 forks, 160 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. stagehand has 24,682 stars, 1,702 forks, 376 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ArchiveBox leads on adoption by 16% (28,553 vs 24,682 stars). ArchiveBox is written in Python under MIT; stagehand is written in TypeScript under MIT. ArchiveBox has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, stagehand 7%. ArchiveBox was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (python), 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
| ArchiveBox | stagehand | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 25K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ArchiveBox if
- You weight community size — 29K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick stagehand if
- You want the stagehand feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and stagehand fits your workflow better
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 →
About stagehand
Stagehand is the MIT licensed SDK for extracting data and interacting with any site on the web, available in TypeScript, Python, and Go, and aimed at developers building AI agents that need to drive a browser the way a person does rather than at engineers writing test suites.
read the full stagehand overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ArchiveBox or stagehand more popular?
ArchiveBox has 28,553 GitHub stars and stagehand has 24,682. ArchiveBox has the larger community by that measure.
Are ArchiveBox and stagehand free?
Both are open source. ArchiveBox is licensed under MIT and stagehand under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ArchiveBox and stagehand?
ArchiveBox is written in Python and stagehand in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, ArchiveBox or stagehand?
Choose ArchiveBox if you want the larger community (28,553 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose stagehand if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.