head to head · open source
EasySpider vs crw
EasySpider has 44,558 GitHub stars, 5,386 forks, 271 open issues and last shipped yesterday. crw has 1,045 stars, 80 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped yesterday. EasySpider leads on adoption by 4,164% (44,558 vs 1,045 stars). EasySpider is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; crw is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. EasySpider has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, crw 8%. crw 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.
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Side by side
| EasySpider | crw | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 1.0K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.4K | ⑂ 80 |
| 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 crw if
- You want the crw feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and crw 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 crw
crw (fastCRW) is a Rust based web scraping, crawling, and search engine with an MCP server that turns URLs into clean markdown or structured JSON, aimed at AI agents and the developers who wire them into coding tools.
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Frequently asked questions
Is EasySpider or crw more popular?
EasySpider has 44,558 GitHub stars and crw has 1,045. EasySpider has the larger community by that measure.
Are EasySpider and crw free?
Both are open source. EasySpider is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and crw under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between EasySpider and crw?
EasySpider is written in JavaScript and crw in Rust. 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 crw?
Choose EasySpider if you want the larger community (44,558 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose crw if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.