head to head · open source
EasySpider vs CloakBrowser
EasySpider has 44,558 GitHub stars, 5,386 forks, 271 open issues and last shipped yesterday. CloakBrowser has 31,528 stars, 2,612 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. EasySpider leads on adoption by 41% (44,558 vs 31,528 stars). EasySpider is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT. EasySpider has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, CloakBrowser 8%. EasySpider was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| EasySpider | CloakBrowser | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 32K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.4K | ⑂ 2.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick EasySpider if
- You weight community size — 45K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick CloakBrowser if
- You want the CloakBrowser feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and CloakBrowser fits your workflow better
About EasySpider
EasySpider is a visual, code free web crawler and browser automation tool distributed on GitHub under the AGPL 3.0 license. It is written in JavaScript as a graphical application and lives in the web scraping and data extraction ecosystem, sitting alongside browser automation testing tools. It also carries the alias ServiceWrapper, described as an intelligent service encapsulation system for web applications. Development spans roughly six years, with the latest push recorded in September 2026.
read the full EasySpider overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is EasySpider or CloakBrowser more popular?
EasySpider has 44,558 GitHub stars and CloakBrowser has 31,528. EasySpider has the larger community by that measure.
Are EasySpider and CloakBrowser free?
Both are open source. EasySpider is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and CloakBrowser under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between EasySpider and CloakBrowser?
EasySpider is written in JavaScript and CloakBrowser 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, EasySpider or CloakBrowser?
Choose EasySpider if you want the larger community (44,558 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose CloakBrowser if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.