head to head · open source
lighthouse vs bernstein
lighthouse has 30,832 GitHub stars, 9,760 forks, 470 open issues and last shipped yesterday. bernstein has 1,312 stars, 176 forks, 368 open issues and last shipped today. lighthouse leads on adoption by 2,250% (30,832 vs 1,312 stars). lighthouse is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; bernstein is written in Python under Apache-2.0. lighthouse has attracted 32% as many forks as stars, bernstein 13%. bernstein 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
| lighthouse | bernstein | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-28 | 2026-09-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 176 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lighthouse if
- You weight community size — 31K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick bernstein if
- You want the bernstein feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and bernstein fits your workflow better
About lighthouse
Lighthouse is an open source, automated auditing tool for web applications and web pages. It analyzes a target URL and collects modern performance metrics alongside insights into developer best practices, producing a structured report that scores and explains what it finds. The project lives in the JavaScript ecosystem, is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license, and is maintained under the GoogleChrome organization. It has been developed for roughly eleven years and is published to npm as the lighthouse package.
read the full lighthouse overview →
About bernstein
Bernstein is an open source, Apache 2.0 governance and orchestration framework for fleets of AI agents, built for teams that want to write their operating rules declaratively, have those rules enforced at runtime, and keep a verifiable, replayable record of what every agent did.
read the full bernstein overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lighthouse or bernstein more popular?
lighthouse has 30,832 GitHub stars and bernstein has 1,312. lighthouse has the larger community by that measure.
Are lighthouse and bernstein free?
Both are open source. lighthouse is licensed under Apache-2.0 and bernstein under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lighthouse and bernstein?
lighthouse is written in JavaScript and bernstein 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, lighthouse or bernstein?
Choose lighthouse if you want the larger community (30,832 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose bernstein if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.