head to head · open source
Lightpanda vs puck
Lightpanda has 35,409 GitHub stars, 1,680 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped yesterday. puck has 13,332 stars, 973 forks, 200 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lightpanda leads on adoption by 166% (35,409 vs 13,332 stars). Lightpanda is written in Zig under AGPL-3.0; puck is written in TypeScript under MIT. Lightpanda has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, puck 7%. 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 | puck | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 35K | ★ 13K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Zig | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 973 |
| 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 puck if
- You want the puck feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and puck 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 puck
Puck is a modular, open source visual editor for React.js that lets teams assemble their own drag and drop editing experiences from their existing React components, and it is aimed at developers building internal systems or commercial products who want to own both the editor and the data behind it.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lightpanda or puck more popular?
Lightpanda has 35,409 GitHub stars and puck has 13,332. Lightpanda has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lightpanda and puck free?
Both are open source. Lightpanda is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and puck under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lightpanda and puck?
Lightpanda is written in Zig and puck 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, Lightpanda or puck?
Choose Lightpanda if you want the larger community (35,409 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose puck if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.