head to head · open source
CloakBrowser vs katana
CloakBrowser has 32,693 GitHub stars, 2,719 forks, 164 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. katana has 17,786 stars, 1,213 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped yesterday. CloakBrowser leads on adoption by 84% (32,693 vs 17,786 stars). CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT; katana is written in Go under MIT. CloakBrowser has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, katana 7%. katana 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 | katana | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 18K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick CloakBrowser if
- You weight community size — 33K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick katana if
- You want the katana feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and katana fits your workflow better
About CloakBrowser
Stealth Chromium that passes every bot detection test. Not a patched config. Not a JS injection. A real Chromium binary with fingerprints modified at the C++ source level. Antibot systems score it as a normal browser — because it is a normal browser. Cloudflare Turnstile — 3 live tests passing (headed mode, macOS) Drop in Playwright/Puppeteer replacement for Python and JavaScript. Same API, same code — just swap the import. 3 lines of code, 30 seconds to unblock. 87 source level C++ patches — canvas, WebGL, audio, fonts, GPU, screen, WebRTC, network timing, automation signals, CDP input behavior humanize=True —…
read the full CloakBrowser overview →
About katana
A next generation crawling and spidering framework Features • Installation • Usage • Scope • Config • Filters • Join Discord Features Fast And fully configurable web crawling Standard and Headless mode JavaScript parsing / crawling Customizable automatic form filling Scope control Preconfigured field / Regex Knowledge base ML page type / form classification (auto downloaded model) Customizable output Preconfigured fields INPUT STDIN , URL and LIST OUTPUT STDOUT , FILE and JSON Installation katana requires Go 1.26+ to install successfully. If you encounter any installation issues, we recommend trying with the…
read the full katana overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloakBrowser or katana more popular?
CloakBrowser has 32,693 GitHub stars and katana has 17,786. CloakBrowser has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloakBrowser and katana free?
Both are open source. CloakBrowser is licensed under MIT and katana under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CloakBrowser and katana?
CloakBrowser is written in Python and katana in Go. 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 katana?
Choose CloakBrowser if you want the larger community (32,693 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose katana if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.