head to head · open source
CloakBrowser vs invisible_playwright
CloakBrowser has 31,578 GitHub stars, 2,615 forks, 227 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. invisible_playwright has 2,839 stars, 284 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped today. CloakBrowser leads on adoption by 1,012% (31,578 vs 2,839 stars). CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT; invisible_playwright is written in Python under MIT. CloakBrowser has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, invisible_playwright 10%. invisible_playwright was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (antidetect-browser, headless-browser), 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 | invisible_playwright | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 284 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick CloakBrowser if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick invisible_playwright if
- You want the invisible_playwright feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and invisible_playwright fits your workflow better
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 →
About invisible_playwright
invisible playwright is a free, MIT licensed Python package that makes Playwright's headless Firefox present as a real browser and behave like a real user, built for developers whose scrapers must clear bot detection such as reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha and Cloudflare Turnstile.
read the full invisible_playwright overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloakBrowser or invisible_playwright more popular?
CloakBrowser has 31,578 GitHub stars and invisible_playwright has 2,839. CloakBrowser has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloakBrowser and invisible_playwright free?
Both are open source. CloakBrowser is licensed under MIT and invisible_playwright under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CloakBrowser and invisible_playwright?
CloakBrowser is written in Python and invisible_playwright 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 invisible_playwright?
Choose CloakBrowser if you want the larger community (31,578 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose invisible_playwright if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.