head to head · open source
CloakBrowser vs grab
CloakBrowser has 32,712 GitHub stars, 2,720 forks, 164 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. grab has 2,462 stars, 271 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 1.1 years ago. CloakBrowser leads on adoption by 1,229% (32,712 vs 2,462 stars). CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT; grab is written in Python under MIT. CloakBrowser has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, grab 11%. CloakBrowser 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 | grab | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2025-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 271 |
| 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 grab if
- You want the grab feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and grab 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 grab
Grab Update (2025 year) Since 2018 (which is the year of most recent Grab release) I have tried to do large refactoring of code base of Grab library. Which ended up with semi working product which nobody uses, including me. I have decided to reset all project files to the state of most recent pypi release 0.6.41 dated by june 2018. At least, now the code base corresponds to live version of the product which is being used by some people, according to pypi stats. I've updated Grab code base and code base of its dependencies to be compatible with Python 2.7 and Python 3.13 (and, hopefully, all py versions between…
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloakBrowser or grab more popular?
CloakBrowser has 32,712 GitHub stars and grab has 2,462. CloakBrowser has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloakBrowser and grab free?
Both are open source. CloakBrowser is licensed under MIT and grab under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CloakBrowser and grab?
CloakBrowser is written in Python and grab 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 grab?
Choose CloakBrowser if you want the larger community (32,712 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose grab if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.