head to head · open source
CloakBrowser vs terminal
CloakBrowser has 32,001 GitHub stars, 2,658 forks, 239 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. terminal has 650 stars, 40 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. CloakBrowser leads on adoption by 4,823% (32,001 vs 650 stars). CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT; terminal is written in Rust under MIT. CloakBrowser has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, terminal 6%. CloakBrowser was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (browser-automation), 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 | terminal | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 650 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-08 | 2026-08-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 40 |
| 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 terminal if
- You want the terminal feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and terminal 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 terminal
Browser Use Terminal is a Rust terminal UI for driving and steering LLM powered browser agents in your own Chrome or a headless Chromium, aimed at developers who want to automate real web tasks from the command line.
read the full terminal overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloakBrowser or terminal more popular?
CloakBrowser has 32,001 GitHub stars and terminal has 650. CloakBrowser has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloakBrowser and terminal free?
Both are open source. CloakBrowser is licensed under MIT and terminal under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CloakBrowser and terminal?
CloakBrowser is written in Python and terminal in Rust. 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 terminal?
Choose CloakBrowser if you want the larger community (32,001 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose terminal if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.