head to head · open source
ego-lite vs nanobrowser
ego-lite has 16,117 GitHub stars, 844 forks, 169 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nanobrowser has 13,809 stars, 1,456 forks, 81 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. ego-lite leads on adoption by 17% (16,117 vs 13,809 stars). ego-lite is written in JavaScript under MIT; nanobrowser is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. ego-lite has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, nanobrowser 11%. ego-lite was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (automation, browser, browser-automation), 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
| ego-lite | nanobrowser | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 14K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 844 | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ego-lite if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick nanobrowser if
- You want the nanobrowser feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and nanobrowser fits your workflow better
About ego-lite
ego lite is an MIT licensed browser from citrolabs that lets a person and their AI agents drive the same browser in parallel, aimed at developers who want Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or a custom agent CLI to automate real, logged in web pages without surrendering the tabs they are using.
read the full ego-lite overview →
About nanobrowser
Nanobrowser is an open source Chrome extension for AI powered web automation that runs multi agent workflows inside your own browser using your own LLM API key, built for people who want Operator style browser agents without a subscription.
read the full nanobrowser overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ego-lite or nanobrowser more popular?
ego-lite has 16,117 GitHub stars and nanobrowser has 13,809. ego-lite has the larger community by that measure.
Are ego-lite and nanobrowser free?
Both are open source. ego-lite is licensed under MIT and nanobrowser under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ego-lite and nanobrowser?
ego-lite is written in JavaScript and nanobrowser in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, ego-lite or nanobrowser?
Choose ego-lite if you want the larger community (16,117 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose nanobrowser if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.