head to head · open source
dots vs grab
dots has 32,357 GitHub stars, 4,739 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. grab has 2,462 stars, 271 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 1.1 years ago. dots leads on adoption by 1,214% (32,357 vs 2,462 stars). dots is written in TypeScript under MIT; grab is written in Python under MIT. dots has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, grab 11%. dots 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
| dots | grab | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2025-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.7K | ⑂ 271 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick dots if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick grab if
- You want the grab feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and grab fits your workflow better
About dots
dots Every AI agent is a model and a browser. You can swap the model with one flag. The browser is what the website sees. Windows, in PowerShell: Linux: Then open The conversation on the left, the browser on the right, live. It all comes down to the browser When a web agent fails, the model is rarely why. The page never loaded, a challenge appeared, the login expired, the click did not land. All of that happens in the browser, before the model gets to think. So dots is built around one: A real Firefox engine, patched in C++. The fingerprint is decided inside the engine, not painted over with JavaScript that a…
About grab
Grab Update (2025 year) Since 2018 (which is the year of most recent Grab release) I have tried to do large refactoring of code base of Grab library. Which ended up with semi working product which nobody uses, including me. I have decided to reset all project files to the state of most recent pypi release 0.6.41 dated by june 2018. At least, now the code base corresponds to live version of the product which is being used by some people, according to pypi stats. I've updated Grab code base and code base of its dependencies to be compatible with Python 2.7 and Python 3.13 (and, hopefully, all py versions between…
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Frequently asked questions
Is dots or grab more popular?
dots has 32,357 GitHub stars and grab has 2,462. dots has the larger community by that measure.
Are dots and grab free?
Both are open source. dots is licensed under MIT and grab under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between dots and grab?
dots is written in TypeScript and grab 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, dots or grab?
Choose dots if you want the larger community (32,357 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose grab if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.