head to head · open source
Lightpanda vs Steel
Lightpanda has 35,409 GitHub stars, 1,680 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Steel has 7,655 stars, 979 forks, 68 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Lightpanda leads on adoption by 363% (35,409 vs 7,655 stars). Lightpanda is written in Zig under AGPL-3.0; Steel is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Lightpanda has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Steel 13%. Lightpanda was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (browser-automation), 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 | Steel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 35K | ★ 7.7K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Zig | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 979 |
| 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 Steel if
- You want the Steel 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 Steel 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 Steel
Steel is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed browser API written in TypeScript that gives AI agents and applications cloud browser sessions, so teams can automate the web without building browser infrastructure from scratch.
read the full Steel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lightpanda or Steel more popular?
Lightpanda has 35,409 GitHub stars and Steel has 7,655. Lightpanda has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lightpanda and Steel free?
Both are open source. Lightpanda is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Steel under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lightpanda and Steel?
Lightpanda is written in Zig and Steel 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 Steel?
Choose Lightpanda if you want the larger community (35,409 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Steel if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.