head to head · open source
colly vs curl_cffi
colly has 25,520 GitHub stars, 1,862 forks, 195 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. curl_cffi has 6,507 stars, 552 forks, 72 open issues and last shipped yesterday. colly leads on adoption by 292% (25,520 vs 6,507 stars). colly is written in Go under Apache-2.0; curl_cffi is written in Python under MIT. colly has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, curl_cffi 8%. curl_cffi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| colly | curl_cffi | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 6.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 552 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick colly if
- You weight community size — 26K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick curl_cffi if
- You want the curl_cffi feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and curl_cffi fits your workflow better
About colly
Colly is an open source scraping and crawling framework written in Go, distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. It lives in the Go ecosystem and is consumed as a library rather than a standalone application: the README describes it as providing a clean interface for writing any kind of crawler, scraper, or spider, and the project's own topics list it as a crawler, crawling framework, scraper, scraping tool, and spider. The repository has been public for roughly nine years, carries 25,516 stars and 1,862 forks, and its most recent push was on 2 September 2026. Documentation and examples are hosted at go colly.org…
read the full colly overview →
About curl_cffi
curl cffi is a Python HTTP client that binds the curl impersonate fork through cffi so Python programs can impersonate browser TLS/JA3 and HTTP/2 fingerprints, and it is aimed at developers whose scripts are blocked by bot protection despite apparently correct requests.
read the full curl_cffi overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is colly or curl_cffi more popular?
colly has 25,520 GitHub stars and curl_cffi has 6,507. colly has the larger community by that measure.
Are colly and curl_cffi free?
Both are open source. colly is licensed under Apache-2.0 and curl_cffi under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between colly and curl_cffi?
colly is written in Go and curl_cffi 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, colly or curl_cffi?
Choose colly if you want the larger community (25,520 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose curl_cffi if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.