head to head · open source
CloakBrowser vs crawlee-python
CloakBrowser has 32,726 GitHub stars, 2,720 forks, 164 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. crawlee-python has 9,649 stars, 822 forks, 100 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. CloakBrowser leads on adoption by 239% (32,726 vs 9,649 stars). CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT; crawlee-python is written in Python under Apache-2.0. CloakBrowser has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, crawlee-python 9%. crawlee-python was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (playwright), 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 | crawlee-python | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 9.6K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 822 |
| 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 crawlee-python if
- You want the crawlee-python feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and crawlee-python 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 crawlee-python
A web scraping and browser automation library Crawlee covers your crawling and scraping end to end and helps you build reliable scrapers. Fast. Your crawlers will appear almost human like and fly under the radar of modern bot protections even with the default configuration. Crawlee gives you the tools to crawl the web for links, scrape data and persistently store it in machine readable formats, without having to worry about the technical details. And thanks to rich configuration options, you can tweak almost any aspect of Crawlee to suit your project's needs if the default settings don't cut it. 👉 View full…
read the full crawlee-python overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloakBrowser or crawlee-python more popular?
CloakBrowser has 32,726 GitHub stars and crawlee-python has 9,649. CloakBrowser has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloakBrowser and crawlee-python free?
Both are open source. CloakBrowser is licensed under MIT and crawlee-python under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CloakBrowser and crawlee-python?
CloakBrowser is written in Python and crawlee-python 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 crawlee-python?
Choose CloakBrowser if you want the larger community (32,726 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose crawlee-python if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.