head to head · open source
CloakBrowser vs PHPScraper
CloakBrowser has 32,712 GitHub stars, 2,720 forks, 164 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. PHPScraper has 588 stars, 74 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. CloakBrowser leads on adoption by 5,463% (32,712 vs 588 stars). CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT; PHPScraper is written in PHP under GPL-3.0. CloakBrowser has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, PHPScraper 13%. CloakBrowser was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (chromium), 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 | PHPScraper | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 588 |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-09-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 74 |
| 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 PHPScraper if
- You want the PHPScraper feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and PHPScraper 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 PHPScraper
For full documentation, visit phpscraper.de . PHPScraper is a versatile web utility for PHP. Its primary objective is to streamline the process of extracting information from websites, allowing you to focus on accomplishing tasks without getting caught up in the complexities of selectors, data structure preparation, and conversion. Under the hood, it uses BrowserKit (formerly Goutte) to access the web League/URI to process URLs donatello za/rake php plus to extract and analyze keywords See composer.json for more details. :timer clock: PHPScraper in 5 Minutes explained Here are a few impressions of the way the…
read the full PHPScraper overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloakBrowser or PHPScraper more popular?
CloakBrowser has 32,712 GitHub stars and PHPScraper has 588. CloakBrowser has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloakBrowser and PHPScraper free?
Both are open source. CloakBrowser is licensed under MIT and PHPScraper under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CloakBrowser and PHPScraper?
CloakBrowser is written in Python and PHPScraper in PHP. 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 PHPScraper?
Choose CloakBrowser if you want the larger community (32,712 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose PHPScraper if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.