head to head · open source
chrome-devtools-mcp vs turndown
chrome-devtools-mcp has 54,665 GitHub stars, 5,250 forks, 109 open issues and last shipped yesterday. turndown has 11,501 stars, 999 forks, 144 open issues and last shipped 16 days ago. chrome-devtools-mcp leads on adoption by 375% (54,665 vs 11,501 stars). chrome-devtools-mcp is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; turndown is written in HTML under MIT. chrome-devtools-mcp has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, turndown 9%. 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 | turndown | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 55K | ★ 12K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 999 |
| 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 turndown if
- You want the turndown feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and turndown 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 turndown
Turndown Convert HTML into Markdown with JavaScript. See it in action online. Project Updates to markdown has been renamed to Turndown. See the migration guide for details. Turndown repository has changed its URL to Installation npm: Browser: For usage with RequireJS, UMD versions are located in lib/turndown.umd.js (for Node.js) and lib/turndown.browser.umd.js for browser usage. These files are generated when the npm package is published. To generate them manually, clone this repo and run npm run build . Usage Turndown also accepts DOM nodes as input (either element nodes, document nodes, or document fragment…
read the full turndown overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is chrome-devtools-mcp or turndown more popular?
chrome-devtools-mcp has 54,665 GitHub stars and turndown has 11,501. chrome-devtools-mcp has the larger community by that measure.
Are chrome-devtools-mcp and turndown free?
Both are open source. chrome-devtools-mcp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and turndown under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between chrome-devtools-mcp and turndown?
chrome-devtools-mcp is written in TypeScript and turndown in HTML. 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 turndown?
Choose chrome-devtools-mcp if you want the larger community (54,665 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose turndown if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.