head to head · open source
EasySpider vs ArrowDL
EasySpider has 44,765 GitHub stars, 5,392 forks, 271 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ArrowDL has 853 stars, 42 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. EasySpider leads on adoption by 5,148% (44,765 vs 853 stars). EasySpider is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; ArrowDL is written in C++ under LGPL-3.0. EasySpider has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, ArrowDL 5%. EasySpider was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (crawler), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| EasySpider | ArrowDL | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 853 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-05-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.4K | ⑂ 42 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick EasySpider if
- You weight community size — 45K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ArrowDL if
- You want the ArrowDL feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and ArrowDL fits your workflow better
About EasySpider
易采集/EasySpider: Visual Code Free Web Crawler 一个 完全免费 （ 包括商业使用和二次开发 ）的可视化浏览器自动化测试/数据采集/爬虫软件，可以使用图形化界面，无代码可视化的设计和执行任务。只需要在网页上选择自己想要操作的内容并根据提示框操作即可完成任务的设计和执行。同时软件还可以单独以命令行的方式进行执行，从而可以很方便的嵌入到其他系统中。 A completely free (including for commercial use and secondary development) visual browser automation test/data collection/crawler software, which can be used to design and execute tasks in a code free visual way. You only need to select the content you want to operate on the web page and follow the prompts to complete the design and execution of the task. At the same time, the software can also be executed separately in…
read the full EasySpider overview →
About ArrowDL
ArrowDL (Arrow Downloader) Overview ArrowDL is a standalone download manager for Windows, MacOS and Linux. It aims to work with latest versions of Mozilla Firefox (powered by WebExtensions ), and other web browsers (Chrome, Edge, Safari...). Development ArrowDL is written in C++ and based on the Qt framework. Screenshots Overview Video Streams Webpage Content Batch of Files More screenshots on the Gallery page. Installation Go to Download page to install the application for your operating system. Rem: Native Client is an alternative to ArrowDL . Click here for more information. On Windows, you can also use the…
read the full ArrowDL overview →
More in Data & Analytics
Related comparisons
More Data Extraction & Web Scraping projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Data Extraction & Web Scraping field.
Frequently asked questions
Is EasySpider or ArrowDL more popular?
EasySpider has 44,765 GitHub stars and ArrowDL has 853. EasySpider has the larger community by that measure.
Are EasySpider and ArrowDL free?
Both are open source. EasySpider is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and ArrowDL under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between EasySpider and ArrowDL?
EasySpider is written in JavaScript and ArrowDL in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, EasySpider or ArrowDL?
Choose EasySpider if you want the larger community (44,765 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose ArrowDL if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.