head to head · open source
EasySpider vs browserless
EasySpider has 44,565 GitHub stars, 5,387 forks, 271 open issues and last shipped yesterday. browserless has 1,835 stars, 91 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. EasySpider leads on adoption by 2,329% (44,565 vs 1,835 stars). EasySpider is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; browserless is written in JavaScript under MIT. EasySpider has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, browserless 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 (html), 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
| EasySpider | browserless | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.4K | ⑂ 91 |
| 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 browserless if
- You want the browserless feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and browserless fits your workflow better
About EasySpider
EasySpider is a visual, code free web crawler and browser automation tool distributed on GitHub under the AGPL 3.0 license. It is written in JavaScript as a graphical application and lives in the web scraping and data extraction ecosystem, sitting alongside browser automation testing tools. It also carries the alias ServiceWrapper, described as an intelligent service encapsulation system for web applications. Development spans roughly six years, with the latest push recorded in September 2026.
read the full EasySpider overview →
About browserless
The headless Chrome/Chromium driver on top of Puppeteer. Highlights Installation Usage The cloud API solution CLI Initializing a browser .constructor(options) .createContext(options) .browser() .respawn() .close() Built in .html(url, options) .text(url, options) .pdf(url, options) .screenshot(url, options) .destroyContext(options) .getDevice(options) .evaluate(fn, gotoOpts) .goto(page, options) .context() [.withPage(fn, \[options\])]( withpagefn options) [.page(\[name\])]( pagename) Extended ai function lighthouse screencast Packages FAQ License Highlights Compatible with Puppeteer API (text, screenshot, html, pd…
read the full browserless overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is EasySpider or browserless more popular?
EasySpider has 44,565 GitHub stars and browserless has 1,835. EasySpider has the larger community by that measure.
Are EasySpider and browserless free?
Both are open source. EasySpider is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and browserless under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between EasySpider and browserless?
EasySpider is written in JavaScript and browserless in JavaScript. 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 browserless?
Choose EasySpider if you want the larger community (44,565 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose browserless if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.