head to head · open source
Browser Use vs crw
Browser Use has 115,379 GitHub stars, 12,695 forks, 421 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. crw has 1,054 stars, 84 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Browser Use leads on adoption by 10,847% (115,379 vs 1,054 stars). Browser Use is written in Python under MIT; crw is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. Browser Use has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, crw 8%. crw was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai-agents, llm), 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 | crw | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 115K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 13K | ⑂ 84 |
| 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 crw if
- You want the crw feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and crw 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 crw
crw (fastCRW) is a Rust based web scraping, crawling, and search engine with an MCP server that turns URLs into clean markdown or structured JSON, aimed at AI agents and the developers who wire them into coding tools.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Browser Use or crw more popular?
Browser Use has 115,379 GitHub stars and crw has 1,054. Browser Use has the larger community by that measure.
Are Browser Use and crw free?
Both are open source. Browser Use is licensed under MIT and crw under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Browser Use and crw?
Browser Use is written in Python and crw in Rust. 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 crw?
Choose Browser Use if you want the larger community (115,379 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose crw if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.