head to head · open source
cypress vs selenium
cypress has 51,020 GitHub stars, 3,593 forks, 1,084 open issues and last shipped yesterday. selenium has 34,584 stars, 8,727 forks, 188 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cypress leads on adoption by 48% (51,020 vs 34,584 stars). cypress is written in TypeScript under MIT; selenium is written in Java under Apache-2.0. cypress has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, selenium 25%. cypress 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
| cypress | selenium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 51K | ★ 35K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.6K | ⑂ 8.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick cypress if
- You weight community size — 51K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick selenium if
- You want the selenium feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and selenium fits your workflow better
About cypress
Documentation Changelog Roadmap The web has evolved. Finally, testing has too. Fast, easy and reliable testing for anything that runs in a browser. Join us, we're hiring . What is Cypress? Installing Install Cypress for Mac, Linux, or Windows, then get started. or or Contributing develop branch Please see our Contributing Guideline which explains repo organization, linting, testing, and other steps. License This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT license. Badges Configure a badge for your project's README to show your test status or test count in the Cypress Cloud. Or let the world know your project…
read the full cypress overview →
About selenium
Selenium Automates browsers. That's it! Contributing • Installing • Building • Developing • Testing • Documenting • Releasing Selenium is an umbrella project encapsulating a variety of tools and libraries enabling web browser automation. Selenium specifically provides an infrastructure for the W3C WebDriver specification — a platform and language neutral coding interface compatible with all major web browsers. The project is made possible by volunteer contributors who've generously donated thousands of hours in code development and upkeep. This README is for developers interested in contributing to the project…
read the full selenium overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is cypress or selenium more popular?
cypress has 51,020 GitHub stars and selenium has 34,584. cypress has the larger community by that measure.
Are cypress and selenium free?
Both are open source. cypress is licensed under MIT and selenium under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cypress and selenium?
cypress is written in TypeScript and selenium in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, cypress or selenium?
Choose cypress if you want the larger community (51,020 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose selenium if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.