head to head · open source
CloakBrowser vs icrawler
CloakBrowser has 32,712 GitHub stars, 2,720 forks, 164 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. icrawler has 935 stars, 181 forks, 31 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. CloakBrowser leads on adoption by 3,399% (32,712 vs 935 stars). CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT; icrawler is written in Python under MIT. CloakBrowser has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, icrawler 19%. 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 | icrawler | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 935 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2025-12-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 181 |
| 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 icrawler if
- You want the icrawler feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and icrawler 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 icrawler
icrawler ======== .. image:: :target: :alt: PyPI Version .. image:: :target: :alt: Anaconda Version .. image:: :alt: Python Version .. image:: :alt: License Introduction Documentation: Try it with pip install icrawler or conda install c hellock icrawler . This package is a mini framework of web crawlers. With modularization design, it is easy to use and extend. It supports media data like images and videos very well, and can also be applied to texts and other type of files. Scrapy is heavy and powerful, while icrawler is tiny and flexible. With this package, you can write a multiple thread crawler easily by…
read the full icrawler overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloakBrowser or icrawler more popular?
CloakBrowser has 32,712 GitHub stars and icrawler has 935. CloakBrowser has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloakBrowser and icrawler free?
Both are open source. CloakBrowser is licensed under MIT and icrawler under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CloakBrowser and icrawler?
CloakBrowser is written in Python and icrawler 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 icrawler?
Choose CloakBrowser if you want the larger community (32,712 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose icrawler if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.