head to head · open source
CloakBrowser vs firecrawl-mcp-server
CloakBrowser has 31,578 GitHub stars, 2,615 forks, 227 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. firecrawl-mcp-server has 7,489 stars, 891 forks, 136 open issues and last shipped today. CloakBrowser leads on adoption by 322% (31,578 vs 7,489 stars). CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT; firecrawl-mcp-server is written in JavaScript under MIT. CloakBrowser has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, firecrawl-mcp-server 12%. firecrawl-mcp-server was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| CloakBrowser | firecrawl-mcp-server | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 7.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 891 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick CloakBrowser if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick firecrawl-mcp-server if
- You want the firecrawl-mcp-server feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and firecrawl-mcp-server fits your workflow better
About CloakBrowser
CloakBrowser is a stealth Chromium build for Python and JavaScript teams that need browser automation to survive bot detection systems, aimed at scraping and AI agent engineers who want to replace Playwright or Puppeteer without rewriting their code.
read the full CloakBrowser overview →
About firecrawl-mcp-server
Firecrawl MCP Server is the official Model Context Protocol server that gives Cursor, Claude, and other MCP compatible AI clients search, scraping, and page interaction against the live web.
read the full firecrawl-mcp-server overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloakBrowser or firecrawl-mcp-server more popular?
CloakBrowser has 31,578 GitHub stars and firecrawl-mcp-server has 7,489. CloakBrowser has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloakBrowser and firecrawl-mcp-server free?
Both are open source. CloakBrowser is licensed under MIT and firecrawl-mcp-server under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CloakBrowser and firecrawl-mcp-server?
CloakBrowser is written in Python and firecrawl-mcp-server 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, CloakBrowser or firecrawl-mcp-server?
Choose CloakBrowser if you want the larger community (31,578 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose firecrawl-mcp-server if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.