head to head · open source
Lightpanda vs scout
Lightpanda has 36,513 GitHub stars, 1,747 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped today. scout has 693 stars, 23 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped today. Lightpanda leads on adoption by 5,169% (36,513 vs 693 stars). Lightpanda is written in Zig under AGPL-3.0; scout is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Lightpanda has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, scout 3%. Lightpanda was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (browser-automation, cdp), 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 | scout | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 693 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Zig | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-15 | 2026-10-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 23 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Lightpanda if
- You weight community size — 37K 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 scout if
- You want the scout feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and scout 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 scout
Scout is an open source browser agent from Outcrawl that takes a task written in plain language, opens a real browser, works through the page until the job is done, and hands back the answer.
read the full scout overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lightpanda or scout more popular?
Lightpanda has 36,513 GitHub stars and scout has 693. Lightpanda has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lightpanda and scout free?
Both are open source. Lightpanda is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and scout under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lightpanda and scout?
Lightpanda is written in Zig and scout 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 scout?
Choose Lightpanda if you want the larger community (36,513 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose scout if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.