head to head · open source
Crawl4AI vs httpcloak
Crawl4AI has 86,783 GitHub stars, 9,043 forks, 188 open issues and last shipped yesterday. httpcloak has 1,356 stars, 97 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. Crawl4AI leads on adoption by 6,300% (86,783 vs 1,356 stars). Crawl4AI is written in Python under Apache-2.0; httpcloak is written in Go under MIT. Crawl4AI has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, httpcloak 7%. Crawl4AI 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 | httpcloak | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 87K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.0K | ⑂ 97 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Crawl4AI if
- You weight community size — 87K 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 httpcloak if
- You want the httpcloak feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and httpcloak fits your workflow better
About Crawl4AI
🚀🤖 Crawl4AI: Open source LLM Friendly Web Crawler & Scraper. 🚀 Crawl4AI Cloud API — Closed Beta (Launching Soon) Reliable, large scale web extraction, now built to be drastically more cost effective than any of the existing solutions. 👉 Apply here for early access We’ll be onboarding in phases and working closely with early users. Limited slots. Crawl4AI turns the web into clean, LLM ready Markdown for RAG, agents, and data pipelines. Fast, controllable, battle tested by a 50k+ star community. ✨ Check out latest update v0.9.3 ✨ New in v0.9.3 : Security release. Closes five coordinated disclosure advisories…
read the full Crawl4AI overview →
About httpcloak
Every Byte of your Request Indistinguishable from Chrome. 📖 Full documentation at httpcloak.dev The Problem Bot detection doesn't just check your User Agent anymore. It fingerprints your TLS handshake . Your HTTP/2 frames . Your QUIC parameters . The order of your headers. Whether your SNI is encrypted. One mismatch = blocked. The Solution That's it. Full browser transport layer fingerprint. What Gets Emulated 🔐 TLS Layer JA3 / JA4 fingerprints GREASE randomization Post quantum X25519MLKEM768 ECH (Encrypted Client Hello) 🚀 Transport Layer HTTP/2 SETTINGS frames WINDOW UPDATE values Stream priorities (HPACK)…
read the full httpcloak overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Crawl4AI or httpcloak more popular?
Crawl4AI has 86,783 GitHub stars and httpcloak has 1,356. Crawl4AI has the larger community by that measure.
Are Crawl4AI and httpcloak free?
Both are open source. Crawl4AI is licensed under Apache-2.0 and httpcloak under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Crawl4AI and httpcloak?
Crawl4AI is written in Python and httpcloak in Go. 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 httpcloak?
Choose Crawl4AI if you want the larger community (86,783 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose httpcloak if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.