head to head · open source
Browser Use vs skills
Browser Use has 115,379 GitHub stars, 12,695 forks, 421 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. skills has 5,963 stars, 297 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped 27 days ago. Browser Use leads on adoption by 1,835% (115,379 vs 5,963 stars). Browser Use is written in Python under MIT; skills is written in Python under MIT. Browser Use has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, skills 5%. Browser Use was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai-agents), 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 | skills | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 115K | ★ 6.0K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-08-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 13K | ⑂ 297 |
| 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 skills if
- You want the skills feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and skills 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 skills
BrowserAct Skills is a browser automation CLI built for AI agents, distributed as an open source Python project under the MIT license. It lives in the agent infrastructure ecosystem, alongside tooling for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and other agent clients, and it is catalogued here under Data Extraction and Web Scraping. The project has gathered roughly 5,900 stars and 293 forks since it was published about a year ago, with a small open issue count and an active last push.
read the full skills overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Browser Use or skills more popular?
Browser Use has 115,379 GitHub stars and skills has 5,963. Browser Use has the larger community by that measure.
Are Browser Use and skills free?
Both are open source. Browser Use is licensed under MIT and skills under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Browser Use and skills?
Browser Use is written in Python and skills 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 skills?
Choose Browser Use if you want the larger community (115,379 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose skills if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.