head to head · open source
obscura vs Deta Surf
obscura has 30,307 GitHub stars, 2,291 forks, 134 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Deta Surf has 3,617 stars, 252 forks, 32 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. obscura leads on adoption by 738% (30,307 vs 3,617 stars). obscura is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; Deta Surf is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. obscura has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Deta Surf 7%. obscura was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (rust), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| obscura | Deta Surf | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-08-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 252 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick obscura if
- You weight community size — 30K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Deta Surf if
- You want the Deta Surf feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Deta Surf fits your workflow better
About obscura
Obscura The open source headless browser for AI agents and web scraping. Lightweight, stealthy, and built in Rust. Native rendering is here. No Chromium required. 🎉 Capture screenshots, screencast live pages, and export PDFs directly with Obscura. Obscura is a headless browser engine written in Rust, built for web scraping and AI agent automation. It runs real JavaScript via V8, supports the Chrome DevTools Protocol, and acts as a drop in replacement for headless Chrome with Puppeteer and Playwright. Why Obscura over headless Chrome? Obscura inspired Cloudflare Kitesurf’s first prototype Cloudflare began by…
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About Deta Surf
Website Discord Deta Surf: Your AI Notebook Deta Surf is an AI notebook that brings all your files and the web directly into your stream of thought. It’s meant for simultaneous research and thinking that minimizes the grunt work: manually searching, opening windows & tabs, scrolling, copying and pasting into a document editor. Surf is primarily built in Svelte, TypeScript and Rust, runs on MacOS, Windows & Linux, stores data locally in open formats, and is open source. Motivation Most applications are focused on a single task, or a single media type: notes, websites, or PDFs. Real thinking requires juggling…
read the full Deta Surf overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is obscura or Deta Surf more popular?
obscura has 30,307 GitHub stars and Deta Surf has 3,617. obscura has the larger community by that measure.
Are obscura and Deta Surf free?
Both are open source. obscura is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Deta Surf under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between obscura and Deta Surf?
obscura is written in Rust and Deta Surf in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, obscura or Deta Surf?
Choose obscura if you want the larger community (30,307 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Deta Surf if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.