head to head · open source
CloakBrowser vs puppeteer-sharp
CloakBrowser has 31,578 GitHub stars, 2,615 forks, 227 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. puppeteer-sharp has 3,921 stars, 483 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. CloakBrowser leads on adoption by 705% (31,578 vs 3,921 stars). CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT; puppeteer-sharp is written in C# under MIT. CloakBrowser has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, puppeteer-sharp 12%. 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 | puppeteer-sharp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 483 |
| 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 puppeteer-sharp if
- You want the puppeteer-sharp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and puppeteer-sharp 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 puppeteer-sharp
Puppeteer Sharp is an MIT licensed .NET port of the official Node.js Puppeteer API, giving C developers headless Chrome automation for screenshots, PDF generation, content extraction, and end to end testing without leaving the .NET toolchain.
read the full puppeteer-sharp overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloakBrowser or puppeteer-sharp more popular?
CloakBrowser has 31,578 GitHub stars and puppeteer-sharp has 3,921. CloakBrowser has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloakBrowser and puppeteer-sharp free?
Both are open source. CloakBrowser is licensed under MIT and puppeteer-sharp under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CloakBrowser and puppeteer-sharp?
CloakBrowser is written in Python and puppeteer-sharp in C#. 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 puppeteer-sharp?
Choose CloakBrowser if you want the larger community (31,578 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose puppeteer-sharp if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.