head to head · open source
CloakBrowser vs browser-control
CloakBrowser has 32,784 GitHub stars, 2,724 forks, 166 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. browser-control has 3,157 stars, 210 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. CloakBrowser leads on adoption by 938% (32,784 vs 3,157 stars). CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT; browser-control is written in Rust under MIT. CloakBrowser has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, browser-control 7%. CloakBrowser was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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
| CloakBrowser | browser-control | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 3.2K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-08 | 2026-08-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 210 |
| 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 browser-control if
- You want the browser-control feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and browser-control 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 browser-control
browser control A tiny, fast Rust CLI that drives a real browser over the Chrome DevTools Protocol — built for coding agents. No LLM. No MCP requirement. No framework. Just compact, composable browser commands you can pipe from a shell. browser control exposes a browser as a small, debuggable pipe: page snapshots, stable element refs, raw CDP, a background event watcher, and shell runnable scripts. The coding agent stays the agent — browser control just gives it hands and eyes. Why browser control Shell native. Every capability is a subcommand that prints compact text or JSON. No SDK, no long running server to…
read the full browser-control overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloakBrowser or browser-control more popular?
CloakBrowser has 32,784 GitHub stars and browser-control has 3,157. CloakBrowser has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloakBrowser and browser-control free?
Both are open source. CloakBrowser is licensed under MIT and browser-control under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CloakBrowser and browser-control?
CloakBrowser is written in Python and browser-control 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, CloakBrowser or browser-control?
Choose CloakBrowser if you want the larger community (32,784 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose browser-control if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.