head to head · open source
dots vs katana
dots has 32,357 GitHub stars, 4,739 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. katana has 17,786 stars, 1,213 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dots leads on adoption by 82% (32,357 vs 17,786 stars). dots is written in TypeScript under MIT; katana is written in Go under MIT. dots has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, katana 7%. katana 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 | katana | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 18K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.7K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 katana if
- You want the katana feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and katana 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 katana
A next generation crawling and spidering framework Features • Installation • Usage • Scope • Config • Filters • Join Discord Features Fast And fully configurable web crawling Standard and Headless mode JavaScript parsing / crawling Customizable automatic form filling Scope control Preconfigured field / Regex Knowledge base ML page type / form classification (auto downloaded model) Customizable output Preconfigured fields INPUT STDIN , URL and LIST OUTPUT STDOUT , FILE and JSON Installation katana requires Go 1.26+ to install successfully. If you encounter any installation issues, we recommend trying with the…
read the full katana overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is dots or katana more popular?
dots has 32,357 GitHub stars and katana has 17,786. dots has the larger community by that measure.
Are dots and katana free?
Both are open source. dots is licensed under MIT and katana under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between dots and katana?
dots is written in TypeScript and katana 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, dots or katana?
Choose dots if you want the larger community (32,357 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose katana if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.