head to head · open source
CloakBrowser vs stagehand
CloakBrowser has 32,693 GitHub stars, 2,719 forks, 164 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. stagehand has 25,910 stars, 1,805 forks, 376 open issues and last shipped yesterday. CloakBrowser leads on adoption by 26% (32,693 vs 25,910 stars). CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT; stagehand is written in TypeScript under MIT. CloakBrowser has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, stagehand 7%. stagehand was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ai-agents, browser-automation, 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 | stagehand | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 26K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| 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 stagehand if
- You want the stagehand feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and stagehand 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 stagehand
Stagehand is the SDK to extract data and interact with any site on the web. Playwright was built for testing. Stagehand is built for agents, in TypeScript, Python, and Go. Docs · Quickstart · ⭐ Star this repo AI that uses the browser like humans. Sign in once, keep the session, and pull structured data out the other side. Python Go Install Python Go Local runs need Chrome installed. Full setup: Quickstart. Why Stagehand Token efficiency Hybrid accessibilit
read the full stagehand overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloakBrowser or stagehand more popular?
CloakBrowser has 32,693 GitHub stars and stagehand has 25,910. CloakBrowser has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloakBrowser and stagehand free?
Both are open source. CloakBrowser is licensed under MIT and stagehand under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CloakBrowser and stagehand?
CloakBrowser is written in Python and stagehand 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 stagehand?
Choose CloakBrowser if you want the larger community (32,693 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose stagehand if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.