head to head · open source
Browser Use vs spider
Browser Use has 120,031 GitHub stars, 13,383 forks, 421 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. spider has 2,824 stars, 323 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Browser Use leads on adoption by 4,150% (120,031 vs 2,824 stars). Browser Use is written in Python under MIT; spider is written in Rust under MIT. Browser Use has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, spider 11%. spider 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 | spider | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 120K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 13K | ⑂ 323 |
| 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 spider if
- You want the spider feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and spider 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 spider
Spider The fastest web crawler and scraper for Rust. spider.cloud · Guides · Docs · Examples · Discord Spider is a concurrency first crawling engine written in Rust. It streams pages as they arrive, renders JavaScript only on pages that need it, and scales from a single script to a distributed fleet without changing your code. The same engine runs Spider Cloud, so you can prototype locally and move to managed infrastructure with one config change. Start in the cloud The hardest part of crawling at scale isn't the code. It's the proxies, headless browsers, and constant anti bot churn. Spider Cloud runs all of…
read the full spider overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Browser Use or spider more popular?
Browser Use has 120,031 GitHub stars and spider has 2,824. Browser Use has the larger community by that measure.
Are Browser Use and spider free?
Both are open source. Browser Use is licensed under MIT and spider under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Browser Use and spider?
Browser Use is written in Python and spider 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 spider?
Choose Browser Use if you want the larger community (120,031 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose spider if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.