head to head · open source
CloakBrowser vs patchright
CloakBrowser has 31,578 GitHub stars, 2,615 forks, 227 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. patchright has 4,636 stars, 227 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. CloakBrowser leads on adoption by 581% (31,578 vs 4,636 stars). CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT; patchright is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. CloakBrowser has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, patchright 5%. CloakBrowser was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (chromium, cloudflare, cloudflare-bypass, playwright), 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 | patchright | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 4.6K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 227 |
| 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 patchright if
- You want the patchright feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and patchright 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 patchright
Patchright is a patched, undetected version of the Playwright testing and automation framework, shipped as a driver and aimed at developers who need browser automation that anti bot systems do not flag.
read the full patchright overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloakBrowser or patchright more popular?
CloakBrowser has 31,578 GitHub stars and patchright has 4,636. CloakBrowser has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloakBrowser and patchright free?
Both are open source. CloakBrowser is licensed under MIT and patchright under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CloakBrowser and patchright?
CloakBrowser is written in Python and patchright in TypeScript. 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 patchright?
Choose CloakBrowser if you want the larger community (31,578 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose patchright if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.