head to head · open source
Lightpanda vs pyatv
Lightpanda has 40,882 GitHub stars, 1,999 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pyatv has 1,201 stars, 164 forks, 258 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Lightpanda leads on adoption by 3,304% (40,882 vs 1,201 stars). Lightpanda is written in Zig under AGPL-3.0; pyatv is written in Python under MIT. Lightpanda has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, pyatv 14%. 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 | pyatv | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Zig | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-08-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.0K | ⑂ 164 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Lightpanda if
- You weight community size — 41K 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 pyatv if
- You want the pyatv feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and pyatv fits your workflow better
About Lightpanda
Lightpanda Browser The headless browser built from scratch for AI agents and automation. Not a Chromium fork. Not a WebKit patch. A new browser, written in Zig.   Benchmarks Requesting 933 real web pages over the network on a AWS EC2 m5.large instance. See benchmark details. Quick start Install Package Managers Latest nightly from Homebrew: Latest nightly from Arch Linux User Repository: Download from the nightly builds You can download the last binary from the nightly builds for Linux and MacOS for both x86 64 and aarch64. For Linux Verify the binary before running anything: Linux aarch64 is also available…
read the full Lightpanda overview →
About pyatv
A client library for Apple TV and AirPlay devices ================================================= This is an asyncio python library for interacting with Apple TV and AirPlay devices. It mainly targets Apple TVs (all generations, including tvOS 15 and later ), but also supports audio streaming via AirPlay to receivers like the HomePod, AirPort Express and third party speakers. It can act as remote control to the Music app/iTunes in macOS. All the documentation you need is available at pyatv.dev . What can it do? Some examples include: Remote control commands Metadata retrieval with push updates Stream files via…
read the full pyatv overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lightpanda or pyatv more popular?
Lightpanda has 40,882 GitHub stars and pyatv has 1,201. Lightpanda has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lightpanda and pyatv free?
Both are open source. Lightpanda is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and pyatv under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lightpanda and pyatv?
Lightpanda is written in Zig and pyatv 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 pyatv?
Choose Lightpanda if you want the larger community (40,882 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose pyatv if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.