head to head · open source
Harper vs javascript-obfuscator
Harper has 17,365 GitHub stars, 794 forks, 896 open issues and last shipped yesterday. javascript-obfuscator has 16,318 stars, 1,746 forks, 24 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Harper leads on adoption by 6% (17,365 vs 16,318 stars). Harper is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; javascript-obfuscator is written in TypeScript under BSD-2-Clause. Harper has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, javascript-obfuscator 11%. Harper was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (nodejs), 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
| Harper | javascript-obfuscator | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 16K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 794 | ⑂ 1.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Harper if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick javascript-obfuscator if
- You want the javascript-obfuscator feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and javascript-obfuscator fits your workflow better
About Harper
Harper Harper is an English grammar checker designed to be just right. I created it after years of dealing with the shortcomings of the competition. Grammarly was too expensive and too overbearing. Its suggestions lacked context, and were often just plain wrong . Not to mention: it's a privacy nightmare. Everything you write with Grammarly is sent to their servers. Their privacy policy claims they don't sell the data, but that doesn't mean they don't use it to train large language models and god knows what else. Not only that, but the round trip time of the network request makes revising your work all the more…
read the full Harper overview →
About javascript-obfuscator
JavaScript obfuscator :rocket: Obfuscator.io with VM Obfuscation Obfuscator.io adds VM based bytecode obfuscation to this package your JavaScript functions are compiled to custom bytecode that runs on an embedded virtual machine. Each build produces unique opcodes and VM structure, making reverse engineering and automated deobfuscation dramatically harder. Visit Obfuscator.io · Pro API methods This package provides access to Obfuscator.io API via CLI and Node.js API. Do you use JavaScript Obfuscator at your company? JavaScript Obfuscator has reached over 1 million npm downloads per week . I am currently…
read the full javascript-obfuscator overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Harper or javascript-obfuscator more popular?
Harper has 17,365 GitHub stars and javascript-obfuscator has 16,318. Harper has the larger community by that measure.
Are Harper and javascript-obfuscator free?
Both are open source. Harper is licensed under Apache-2.0 and javascript-obfuscator under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Harper and javascript-obfuscator?
Harper is written in Rust and javascript-obfuscator 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, Harper or javascript-obfuscator?
Choose Harper if you want the larger community (17,365 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose javascript-obfuscator if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.