head to head · open source
CloakBrowser vs browser-search
CloakBrowser has 31,578 GitHub stars, 2,615 forks, 227 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. browser-search has 525 stars, 39 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 18 days ago. CloakBrowser leads on adoption by 5,915% (31,578 vs 525 stars). CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT; browser-search is written in JavaScript under MIT. CloakBrowser has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, browser-search 7%. CloakBrowser was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (browser-automation, cloudflare-bypass), 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-search | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 525 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 39 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick CloakBrowser if
- You weight community size — 32K 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-search if
- You want the browser-search feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and browser-search fits your workflow better
About CloakBrowser
CloakBrowser is a stealth Chromium build for Python and JavaScript teams that need browser automation to survive bot detection systems, aimed at scraping and AI agent engineers who want to replace Playwright or Puppeteer without rewriting their code.
read the full CloakBrowser overview →
About browser-search
browser search is an MIT licensed JavaScript skill for AI agents — OpenCode, Claude Code, Cursor, OpenClaw and others — that gives an agent a self hosted search, browse and anti bot bypass pipeline built on SearXNG, Camofox and CloakBrowser, aimed at developers who want live web answers without buying API keys or paying per query.
read the full browser-search overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloakBrowser or browser-search more popular?
CloakBrowser has 31,578 GitHub stars and browser-search has 525. CloakBrowser has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloakBrowser and browser-search free?
Both are open source. CloakBrowser is licensed under MIT and browser-search under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CloakBrowser and browser-search?
CloakBrowser is written in Python and browser-search in JavaScript. 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-search?
Choose CloakBrowser if you want the larger community (31,578 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose browser-search if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.