head to head · open source
Lightpanda vs invisible_playwright
Lightpanda has 35,452 GitHub stars, 1,684 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped today. invisible_playwright has 2,839 stars, 284 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped today. Lightpanda leads on adoption by 1,149% (35,452 vs 2,839 stars). Lightpanda is written in Zig under AGPL-3.0; invisible_playwright is written in Python under MIT. Lightpanda has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, invisible_playwright 10%. invisible_playwright 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 | invisible_playwright | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 35K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Zig | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 284 |
| 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 invisible_playwright if
- You want the invisible_playwright feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and invisible_playwright 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 invisible_playwright
invisible playwright is a free, MIT licensed Python package that makes Playwright's headless Firefox present as a real browser and behave like a real user, built for developers whose scrapers must clear bot detection such as reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha and Cloudflare Turnstile.
read the full invisible_playwright overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lightpanda or invisible_playwright more popular?
Lightpanda has 35,452 GitHub stars and invisible_playwright has 2,839. Lightpanda has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lightpanda and invisible_playwright free?
Both are open source. Lightpanda is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and invisible_playwright under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lightpanda and invisible_playwright?
Lightpanda is written in Zig and invisible_playwright 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 invisible_playwright?
Choose Lightpanda if you want the larger community (35,452 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose invisible_playwright if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.