head to head · open source
obscura vs BrowserOS
obscura has 30,141 GitHub stars, 2,279 forks, 134 open issues and last shipped yesterday. BrowserOS has 14,225 stars, 1,525 forks, 82 open issues and last shipped yesterday. obscura leads on adoption by 112% (30,141 vs 14,225 stars). obscura is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; BrowserOS is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. obscura has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, BrowserOS 11%. BrowserOS was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (browser, browser-automation), 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
| obscura | BrowserOS | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 14K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick obscura if
- You weight community size — 30K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick BrowserOS if
- You want the BrowserOS feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and BrowserOS fits your workflow better
About obscura
Obscura The open source headless browser for AI agents and web scraping. Lightweight, stealthy, and built in Rust. Native rendering is here. No Chromium required. 🎉 Capture screenshots, screencast live pages, and export PDFs directly with Obscura. Obscura is a headless browser engine written in Rust, built for web scraping and AI agent automation. It runs real JavaScript via V8, supports the Chrome DevTools Protocol, and acts as a drop in replacement for headless Chrome with Puppeteer and Playwright. Why Obscura over headless Chrome? Obscura inspired Cloudflare Kitesurf’s first prototype Cloudflare began by…
read the full obscura overview →
About BrowserOS
Website · Docs · Enterprise Free · Open source · Everything runs on your machine A second browser, just for your AI agents. Import your logins from Chrome in one click, connect Claude Code, Codex, or any MCP agent, and hand off your web tasks. Agents run in parallel in their own tabs. You watch live, or replay any session like a video. BrowserOS neo is not a Chrome replacement. It is a secondary browser that sits next to Chrome, made friendly to agents. Get started 1. Install BrowserOS neo Prefer a direct download? Grab it for macOS or Windows. 2. Import from Chrome One click brings over your logins, bookmarks…
read the full BrowserOS overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is obscura or BrowserOS more popular?
obscura has 30,141 GitHub stars and BrowserOS has 14,225. obscura has the larger community by that measure.
Are obscura and BrowserOS free?
Both are open source. obscura is licensed under Apache-2.0 and BrowserOS under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between obscura and BrowserOS?
obscura is written in Rust and BrowserOS in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, obscura or BrowserOS?
Choose obscura if you want the larger community (30,141 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose BrowserOS if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.