head to head · open source
Browser Use vs colly
Browser Use has 115,379 GitHub stars, 12,695 forks, 421 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. colly has 25,527 stars, 1,862 forks, 195 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Browser Use leads on adoption by 352% (115,379 vs 25,527 stars). Browser Use is written in Python under MIT; colly is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Browser Use has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, colly 7%. Browser Use 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
| Browser Use | colly | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 115K | ★ 26K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 13K | ⑂ 1.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Browser Use if
- You weight community size — 115K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick colly if
- You want the colly feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and colly fits your workflow better
About Browser Use
Browser Use is an open source Python library and hosted platform that enables AI agents to control web browsers programmatically. It lives in the AI agent and browser automation ecosystem, built on Playwright and designed to let LLMs interact with websites as a human would—clicking, filling forms, solving CAPTCHAs, and navigating dynamic interfaces. The project provides three deployment paths: a fully hosted cloud service, a command line interface for existing agents, and a local Python library for custom integrations.
read the full Browser Use overview →
About colly
Colly is an open source scraping and crawling framework written in Go, distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. It lives in the Go ecosystem and is consumed as a library rather than a standalone application: the README describes it as providing a clean interface for writing any kind of crawler, scraper, or spider, and the project's own topics list it as a crawler, crawling framework, scraper, scraping tool, and spider. The repository has been public for roughly nine years, carries 25,516 stars and 1,862 forks, and its most recent push was on 2 September 2026. Documentation and examples are hosted at go colly.org…
read the full colly overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Browser Use or colly more popular?
Browser Use has 115,379 GitHub stars and colly has 25,527. Browser Use has the larger community by that measure.
Are Browser Use and colly free?
Both are open source. Browser Use is licensed under MIT and colly under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Browser Use and colly?
Browser Use is written in Python and colly in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Browser Use or colly?
Choose Browser Use if you want the larger community (115,379 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose colly if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.