head to head · open source
CloakBrowser vs ShardBrowser
CloakBrowser has 32,892 GitHub stars, 2,730 forks, 167 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. ShardBrowser has 1,523 stars, 182 forks, 22 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. CloakBrowser leads on adoption by 2,060% (32,892 vs 1,523 stars). CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT; ShardBrowser is written in TypeScript under MIT. CloakBrowser has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, ShardBrowser 12%. CloakBrowser was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 6 topic tags (ai-agents, antidetect-browser, chromium, fingerprint), 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 | ShardBrowser | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-12 | 2026-11-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 182 |
| 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 ShardBrowser if
- You want the ShardBrowser feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and ShardBrowser 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 ShardBrowser
ShardBrowser Launcher A free, open source anti detect browser launcher for web scraping and multi accounting. Patched Chromium 157 with engine level fingerprint spoofing, a local API, an MCP server and SDKs. Website: shardbrowser.com Overview · Features · Screenshots · Comparison · Install · Usage ShardBrowser is built by the ShardX team (formerly ProxyShard). ProxyShard provides full SOCKS5 UDP relay support (RFC 1928 §7) and active p0f TCP fingerprint spoofing at the proxy exit. This keeps the operating system presented by the proxy consistent with the SYN/ACK shape seen by websites. ShardBrowser is the anti…
read the full ShardBrowser overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloakBrowser or ShardBrowser more popular?
CloakBrowser has 32,892 GitHub stars and ShardBrowser has 1,523. CloakBrowser has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloakBrowser and ShardBrowser free?
Both are open source. CloakBrowser is licensed under MIT and ShardBrowser under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CloakBrowser and ShardBrowser?
CloakBrowser is written in Python and ShardBrowser 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 ShardBrowser?
Choose CloakBrowser if you want the larger community (32,892 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ShardBrowser if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.