head to head · open source
Crawl4AI vs curl_cffi
Crawl4AI has 83,747 GitHub stars, 8,660 forks, 188 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. curl_cffi has 6,507 stars, 552 forks, 72 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Crawl4AI leads on adoption by 1,187% (83,747 vs 6,507 stars). Crawl4AI is written in Python under Apache-2.0; curl_cffi is written in Python under MIT. Crawl4AI has attracted 10% 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
| Crawl4AI | curl_cffi | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 84K | ★ 6.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.7K | ⑂ 552 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Crawl4AI if
- You weight community size — 84K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- 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 Crawl4AI
Crawl4AI is an open source web crawler and scraper designed to prepare website content for large language model (LLM) workflows. It lives in the Python ecosystem and targets data extraction for RAG, agents, and AI pipelines. Unlike many tools that require API keys or paid subscriptions, Crawl4AI provides direct, self hosted access to web content with output structured specifically for LLM consumption.
read the full Crawl4AI 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 Crawl4AI or curl_cffi more popular?
Crawl4AI has 83,747 GitHub stars and curl_cffi has 6,507. Crawl4AI has the larger community by that measure.
Are Crawl4AI and curl_cffi free?
Both are open source. Crawl4AI is licensed under Apache-2.0 and curl_cffi under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Crawl4AI and curl_cffi?
Crawl4AI is written in Python 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, Crawl4AI or curl_cffi?
Choose Crawl4AI if you want the larger community (83,747 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.