head to head · open source
Browser Use vs webmagic
Browser Use has 115,379 GitHub stars, 12,695 forks, 421 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. webmagic has 11,677 stars, 4,100 forks, 367 open issues and last shipped 9 months ago. Browser Use leads on adoption by 888% (115,379 vs 11,677 stars). Browser Use is written in Python under MIT; webmagic is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Browser Use has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, webmagic 35%. Browser Use 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 | webmagic | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 115K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2025-12-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 13K | ⑂ 4.1K |
| 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 webmagic if
- You want the webmagic feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and webmagic 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 webmagic
WebMagic is an open source web crawler framework written in Java and released under the Apache 2.0 license. It lives in the Java ecosystem and is distributed through Maven Central as the us.codecraft:webmagic core and us.codecraft:webmagic extension artifacts. The project describes itself as a scalable crawler framework that covers the whole lifecycle of a crawler: downloading, URL management, content extraction, and persistence. Its architecture was written with reference to Scrapy, the Python crawler framework, and it has been maintained for roughly thirteen years, with the most recent push in December 2025.…
read the full webmagic overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Browser Use or webmagic more popular?
Browser Use has 115,379 GitHub stars and webmagic has 11,677. Browser Use has the larger community by that measure.
Are Browser Use and webmagic free?
Both are open source. Browser Use is licensed under MIT and webmagic under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Browser Use and webmagic?
Browser Use is written in Python and webmagic in Java. 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 webmagic?
Choose Browser Use if you want the larger community (115,379 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose webmagic if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.