head to head · open source
chrome-devtools-mcp vs extism
chrome-devtools-mcp has 54,665 GitHub stars, 5,250 forks, 109 open issues and last shipped yesterday. extism has 5,823 stars, 167 forks, 54 open issues and last shipped 25 days ago. chrome-devtools-mcp leads on adoption by 839% (54,665 vs 5,823 stars). chrome-devtools-mcp is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; extism is written in Rust under BSD-3-Clause. chrome-devtools-mcp has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, extism 3%. chrome-devtools-mcp was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (browser), 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
| chrome-devtools-mcp | extism | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 55K | ★ 5.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 167 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick chrome-devtools-mcp if
- You weight community size — 55K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick extism if
- You want the extism feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and extism fits your workflow better
About chrome-devtools-mcp
Chrome DevTools for agents Chrome DevTools for agents ( chrome devtools mcp ) lets your coding agent (such as Antigravity, Claude, Cursor or Copilot) control and inspect a live Chrome browser. It acts as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, giving your AI coding assistant access to the full power of Chrome DevTools for reliable automation, in depth debugging, and performance analysis. A [CLI][cli] is also provided for use without MCP. [Tool reference][tool reference] [Changelog][changelog] [Contributing][contributing] [Troubleshooting][troubleshooting] [Design Principles][design principles] Key features Get…
read the full chrome-devtools-mcp overview →
About extism
Overview Extism is a lightweight framework for building with WebAssembly (Wasm). It supports running Wasm code on servers, the edge, CLIs, IoT, browsers and everything in between. Extism is designed to be "universal" in that it supports a common interface, no matter where it runs. Note: One of the primary use cases for Extism is building extensible software & plugins . You want to be able to execute arbitrary, untrusted code from your users? Extism makes this safe and practical to do. Additionally, Extism adds some extra utilities on top of standard Wasm runtimes. For example, we support persistent memory/module…
read the full extism overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is chrome-devtools-mcp or extism more popular?
chrome-devtools-mcp has 54,665 GitHub stars and extism has 5,823. chrome-devtools-mcp has the larger community by that measure.
Are chrome-devtools-mcp and extism free?
Both are open source. chrome-devtools-mcp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and extism under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between chrome-devtools-mcp and extism?
chrome-devtools-mcp is written in TypeScript and extism 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, chrome-devtools-mcp or extism?
Choose chrome-devtools-mcp if you want the larger community (54,665 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose extism if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.