head to head · open source
Lightpanda vs astron-rpa
Lightpanda has 35,409 GitHub stars, 1,680 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped yesterday. astron-rpa has 5,564 stars, 598 forks, 55 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Lightpanda leads on adoption by 536% (35,409 vs 5,564 stars). Lightpanda is written in Zig under AGPL-3.0; astron-rpa is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Lightpanda has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, astron-rpa 11%. Lightpanda 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
| Lightpanda | astron-rpa | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 35K | ★ 5.6K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Zig | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 598 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Lightpanda if
- You weight community size — 35K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Zig
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick astron-rpa if
- You want the astron-rpa feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and astron-rpa fits your workflow better
About Lightpanda
Lightpanda is a headless browser built from scratch in Zig, designed specifically for AI agents and automation tasks. It is not a fork of Chromium or WebKit but a new implementation targeting performance and efficiency in automated web interactions. It lives in the browser automation ecosystem, competing with tools like Puppeteer and Playwright that typically rely on Chromium based headless modes.
read the full Lightpanda overview →
About astron-rpa
AstronRPA is an open source, enterprise grade Robotic Process Automation desktop application written in Java and released under the Apache 2.0 license. It provides a visual designer for low code and no code development, letting users build automation workflows through drag and drop rather than hand written scripts. The project lives in the iflytek/astron rpa repository and sits in the broader iFlytek Astron ecosystem, alongside Astron Agent, which serves as its native agent platform. Topics attached to the repository — agent, ai, llm, mcp, low code, no code, enterprise, data privacy, and on premise — describe tha…
read the full astron-rpa overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lightpanda or astron-rpa more popular?
Lightpanda has 35,409 GitHub stars and astron-rpa has 5,564. Lightpanda has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lightpanda and astron-rpa free?
Both are open source. Lightpanda is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and astron-rpa under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lightpanda and astron-rpa?
Lightpanda is written in Zig and astron-rpa in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Lightpanda or astron-rpa?
Choose Lightpanda if you want the larger community (35,409 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose astron-rpa if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.