head to head · open source
EasySpider vs fscrawler
EasySpider has 44,565 GitHub stars, 5,387 forks, 271 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fscrawler has 1,452 stars, 307 forks, 87 open issues and last shipped today. EasySpider leads on adoption by 2,969% (44,565 vs 1,452 stars). EasySpider is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; fscrawler is written in Java under Apache-2.0. EasySpider has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, fscrawler 21%. fscrawler 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 | fscrawler | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.4K | ⑂ 307 |
| 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 fscrawler if
- You want the fscrawler feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and fscrawler 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 fscrawler
File System Crawler for Elasticsearch Welcome to FSCrawler for Elasticsearch This crawler helps to index binary documents such as PDF, Open Office, MS Office. Main features : Local file system (or a mounted drive) crawling and index new files, update existing ones and removes old ones. Remote file system over SSH/FTP crawling. REST interface to let you "upload" your binary documents to elasticsearch. Latest versions Current versions are: Quick start Run Elasticsearch with start local : Run FSCrawler with Docker: Then open Kibana and watch for your documents coming to the fscrawler alias: Or search for some text: …
read the full fscrawler overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is EasySpider or fscrawler more popular?
EasySpider has 44,565 GitHub stars and fscrawler has 1,452. EasySpider has the larger community by that measure.
Are EasySpider and fscrawler free?
Both are open source. EasySpider is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and fscrawler under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between EasySpider and fscrawler?
EasySpider is written in JavaScript and fscrawler in Java. 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 fscrawler?
Choose EasySpider if you want the larger community (44,565 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose fscrawler if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.