head to head · open source
CloakBrowser vs ArchiveBox
CloakBrowser has 32,726 GitHub stars, 2,720 forks, 164 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. ArchiveBox has 28,958 stars, 1,631 forks, 159 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. CloakBrowser leads on adoption by 13% (32,726 vs 28,958 stars). CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT; ArchiveBox is written in Python under MIT. CloakBrowser has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, ArchiveBox 6%. ArchiveBox was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (chromium, headless-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
| CloakBrowser | ArchiveBox | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 29K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick CloakBrowser if
- You weight community size — 33K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ArchiveBox if
- You want the ArchiveBox feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and ArchiveBox fits your workflow better
About CloakBrowser
Stealth Chromium that passes every bot detection test. Not a patched config. Not a JS injection. A real Chromium binary with fingerprints modified at the C++ source level. Antibot systems score it as a normal browser — because it is a normal browser. Cloudflare Turnstile — 3 live tests passing (headed mode, macOS) Drop in Playwright/Puppeteer replacement for Python and JavaScript. Same API, same code — just swap the import. 3 lines of code, 30 seconds to unblock. 87 source level C++ patches — canvas, WebGL, audio, fonts, GPU, screen, WebRTC, network timing, automation signals, CDP input behavior humanize=True —…
read the full CloakBrowser overview →
About ArchiveBox
ArchiveBox Open source self hosted web archiving. ▶️ Quickstart Demo GitHub Documentation Info & Motivation Community ArchiveBox is a self hosted app that lets you preserve content from websites in a variety of formats. We aim to make your data immediately useful, and kept in formats that other programs can read directly. As output, we save standard HTML, PNG, PDF, TXT, JSON, WARC, SQLite, all guaranteed to be readable for decades to come. ArchiveBox also has a CLI, REST API, and webhooks so you can set up integrations with other services. Without active preservation effort, everything on the internet eventually…
read the full ArchiveBox overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloakBrowser or ArchiveBox more popular?
CloakBrowser has 32,726 GitHub stars and ArchiveBox has 28,958. CloakBrowser has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloakBrowser and ArchiveBox free?
Both are open source. CloakBrowser is licensed under MIT and ArchiveBox under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CloakBrowser and ArchiveBox?
CloakBrowser is written in Python and ArchiveBox in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, CloakBrowser or ArchiveBox?
Choose CloakBrowser if you want the larger community (32,726 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ArchiveBox if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.