head to head · open source
Lightpanda vs dots
Lightpanda has 35,670 GitHub stars, 1,694 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped today. dots has 1,942 stars, 320 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Lightpanda leads on adoption by 1,737% (35,670 vs 1,942 stars). Lightpanda is written in Zig under AGPL-3.0; dots is written in Python under MIT. Lightpanda has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, dots 16%. Lightpanda was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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
| Lightpanda | dots | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 1.9K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Zig | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-01 | 2026-09-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 320 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Lightpanda if
- You weight community size — 36K 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 dots if
- You want the dots feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and dots 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 dots
dots is an open source AI web agent that ships with its own anti detect Firefox browser, aimed at developers and automation engineers who need an agent to browse, log in and click through real websites without being blocked.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lightpanda or dots more popular?
Lightpanda has 35,670 GitHub stars and dots has 1,942. Lightpanda has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lightpanda and dots free?
Both are open source. Lightpanda is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and dots under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lightpanda and dots?
Lightpanda is written in Zig and dots 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 dots?
Choose Lightpanda if you want the larger community (35,670 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose dots if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.