head to head · open source
CloakBrowser vs firecrawl-mcp-server
CloakBrowser has 32,712 GitHub stars, 2,720 forks, 164 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. firecrawl-mcp-server has 7,761 stars, 927 forks, 136 open issues and last shipped yesterday. CloakBrowser leads on adoption by 321% (32,712 vs 7,761 stars). CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT; firecrawl-mcp-server is written in JavaScript under MIT. CloakBrowser has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, firecrawl-mcp-server 12%. firecrawl-mcp-server 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
| CloakBrowser | firecrawl-mcp-server | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 7.8K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 927 |
| 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 firecrawl-mcp-server if
- You want the firecrawl-mcp-server feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and firecrawl-mcp-server 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 firecrawl-mcp-server
Firecrawl MCP Server A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that brings Firecrawl to MCP compatible AI agents — search, scrape, and interact with the live web for clean, agent ready context. Big thanks to @vrknetha, @knacklabs for the initial implementation! Features Search the web and get full page content Search an index built for coding agents: GitHub issues, merged pull requests, READMEs, and docs Scrape any URL into clean, structured data Interact with pages — click, navigate, and operate Deep research with autonomous agent Automatic retries and rate limiting Cloud and self hosted support SSE support Play…
read the full firecrawl-mcp-server overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloakBrowser or firecrawl-mcp-server more popular?
CloakBrowser has 32,712 GitHub stars and firecrawl-mcp-server has 7,761. CloakBrowser has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloakBrowser and firecrawl-mcp-server free?
Both are open source. CloakBrowser is licensed under MIT and firecrawl-mcp-server under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CloakBrowser and firecrawl-mcp-server?
CloakBrowser is written in Python and firecrawl-mcp-server 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 firecrawl-mcp-server?
Choose CloakBrowser if you want the larger community (32,712 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose firecrawl-mcp-server if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.