head to head · open source
Lightpanda vs Skyvern
Lightpanda has 35,409 GitHub stars, 1,680 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Skyvern has 23,020 stars, 2,165 forks, 234 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lightpanda leads on adoption by 54% (35,409 vs 23,020 stars). Lightpanda is written in Zig under AGPL-3.0; Skyvern is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. Lightpanda has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Skyvern 9%. Skyvern was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (browser, browser-automation, playwright, puppeteer), 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 | Skyvern | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 35K | ★ 23K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Zig | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 2.2K |
| 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 Skyvern if
- You want the Skyvern feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Skyvern 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 Skyvern
Skyvern is an open source Python project for automating browser based workflows with LLMs and computer vision. It lives in the browser automation and AI agent ecosystem, and it provides a Playwright compatible SDK that adds AI functionality on top of Playwright. The project also includes a no code workflow builder, so technical users can work through code while non technical users can define tasks through the interface.
read the full Skyvern overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lightpanda or Skyvern more popular?
Lightpanda has 35,409 GitHub stars and Skyvern has 23,020. Lightpanda has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lightpanda and Skyvern free?
Both are open source. Lightpanda is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Skyvern under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lightpanda and Skyvern?
Lightpanda is written in Zig and Skyvern 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 Skyvern?
Choose Lightpanda if you want the larger community (35,409 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Skyvern if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.