head to head · open source
Scrapling vs CloakBrowser
Scrapling has 81,798 GitHub stars, 8,307 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. CloakBrowser has 31,528 stars, 2,612 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Scrapling leads on adoption by 159% (81,798 vs 31,528 stars). Scrapling is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause; CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT. Scrapling has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, CloakBrowser 8%. Scrapling was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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
| Scrapling | CloakBrowser | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 82K | ★ 32K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.3K | ⑂ 2.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Scrapling if
- You weight community size — 82K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick CloakBrowser if
- You want the CloakBrowser feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and CloakBrowser fits your workflow better
About Scrapling
Scrapling is an adaptive Python web scraping framework for developers, data teams, and regular users who need anything from a single request to a full scale crawl without rewriting selectors every time a site changes.
read the full Scrapling overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Scrapling or CloakBrowser more popular?
Scrapling has 81,798 GitHub stars and CloakBrowser has 31,528. Scrapling has the larger community by that measure.
Are Scrapling and CloakBrowser free?
Both are open source. Scrapling is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and CloakBrowser under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Scrapling and CloakBrowser?
Scrapling is written in Python and CloakBrowser 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, Scrapling or CloakBrowser?
Choose Scrapling if you want the larger community (81,798 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose CloakBrowser if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.