head to head · open source
Browser Use vs Crawl4AI
Browser Use has 119,787 GitHub stars, 13,348 forks, 421 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Crawl4AI has 86,783 stars, 9,043 forks, 188 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Browser Use leads on adoption by 38% (119,787 vs 86,783 stars). Browser Use is written in Python under MIT; Crawl4AI is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Browser Use has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Crawl4AI 10%. Crawl4AI was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (ai-agents, llm, mcp, playwright), 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
| Browser Use | Crawl4AI | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 120K | ★ 87K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 13K | ⑂ 9.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Browser Use if
- You weight community size — 120K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Crawl4AI if
- You want the Crawl4AI 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 Crawl4AI fits your workflow better
About Browser Use
Navigate the web like a human does. Find an available slot, pick a date and time, handle the CAPTCHA, and book a driving test. Explore more demos and prompts ↗ Which Browser Use do I need? Path 1: Fully Hosted Cloud: Scale up with a fully hosted agent and browser. Path 2: CLI: Automate your own browser tasks. Path 3: Python Library: Run the open source Browser Use agent locally from your own code. Quickstart Path 1: Fully Hosted Cloud Scale browser automation with our hosted agent, stealth browsers, and infrastructure for profiles, recordings, and data policies. Get started with the API ↗ New Google, GitHub, or…
read the full Browser Use overview →
About Crawl4AI
🚀🤖 Crawl4AI: Open source LLM Friendly Web Crawler & Scraper. 🚀 Crawl4AI Cloud API — Closed Beta (Launching Soon) Reliable, large scale web extraction, now built to be drastically more cost effective than any of the existing solutions. 👉 Apply here for early access We’ll be onboarding in phases and working closely with early users. Limited slots. Crawl4AI turns the web into clean, LLM ready Markdown for RAG, agents, and data pipelines. Fast, controllable, battle tested by a 50k+ star community. ✨ Check out latest update v0.9.3 ✨ New in v0.9.3 : Security release. Closes five coordinated disclosure advisories…
read the full Crawl4AI overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Browser Use or Crawl4AI more popular?
Browser Use has 119,787 GitHub stars and Crawl4AI has 86,783. Browser Use has the larger community by that measure.
Are Browser Use and Crawl4AI free?
Both are open source. Browser Use is licensed under MIT and Crawl4AI under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Browser Use and Crawl4AI?
Browser Use is written in Python and Crawl4AI 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, Browser Use or Crawl4AI?
Choose Browser Use if you want the larger community (119,787 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Crawl4AI if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.