head to head · open source
Browser Use vs playwright-go
Browser Use has 116,107 GitHub stars, 12,786 forks, 421 open issues and last shipped yesterday. playwright-go has 3,510 stars, 246 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. Browser Use leads on adoption by 3,208% (116,107 vs 3,510 stars). Browser Use is written in Python under MIT; playwright-go is written in Go under MIT. Browser Use has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, playwright-go 7%. Browser Use was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (browser-automation, 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 | playwright-go | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 116K | ★ 3.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-24 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 13K | ⑂ 246 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Browser Use if
- You weight community size — 116K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick playwright-go if
- You want the playwright-go feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and playwright-go 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 playwright-go
Playwright for Go is a browser automation library, distributed as the Go module github.com/mxschmitt/playwright go under the MIT licence, that drives Chromium, Firefox and WebKit through a single API and is aimed at Go developers who need programmatic control of real browsers.
read the full playwright-go overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Browser Use or playwright-go more popular?
Browser Use has 116,107 GitHub stars and playwright-go has 3,510. Browser Use has the larger community by that measure.
Are Browser Use and playwright-go free?
Both are open source. Browser Use is licensed under MIT and playwright-go under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Browser Use and playwright-go?
Browser Use is written in Python and playwright-go 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 playwright-go?
Choose Browser Use if you want the larger community (116,107 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose playwright-go if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.