head to head · open source
Crawl4AI vs open-dots
Crawl4AI has 87,371 GitHub stars, 9,116 forks, 188 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. open-dots has 7,074 stars, 920 forks, 21 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Crawl4AI leads on adoption by 1,135% (87,371 vs 7,074 stars). Crawl4AI is written in Python under Apache-2.0; open-dots is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Crawl4AI has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, open-dots 13%. 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 | open-dots | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 87K | ★ 7.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-13 | 2026-11-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.1K | ⑂ 920 |
| 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 open-dots if
- You want the open-dots feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and open-dots 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 open-dots
Open Dots: Open Source Alternative to OpenAI Dots ▶ Watch: OpenAI Dots Alternative: Free, Open Source & Any Model Open Dots is an open source alternative to OpenAI Dots: a self hosted AI workspace for chat, tool use, approvals, connectors, and computer tasks. It brings model conversations, a governed action gateway, approval prompts, and an optional isolated browser runtime into one local first app. Open Dots is independently built and is not affiliated with or endorsed by OpenAI, xAI, or any model provider. It offers a self hostable, inspectable alternative for people looking for an open source OpenAI Dots…
read the full open-dots overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Crawl4AI or open-dots more popular?
Crawl4AI has 87,371 GitHub stars and open-dots has 7,074. Crawl4AI has the larger community by that measure.
Are Crawl4AI and open-dots free?
Both are open source. Crawl4AI is licensed under Apache-2.0 and open-dots under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Crawl4AI and open-dots?
Crawl4AI is written in Python and open-dots 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 open-dots?
Choose Crawl4AI if you want the larger community (87,371 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose open-dots if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.