head to head · open source
lux vs crw
lux has 31,818 GitHub stars, 3,329 forks, 545 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. crw has 1,208 stars, 97 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. lux leads on adoption by 2,534% (31,818 vs 1,208 stars). lux is written in Go under MIT; crw is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. lux has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, crw 8%. crw was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (crawler), 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
| lux | crw | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-03-29 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 97 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lux if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick crw if
- You want the crw feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and crw fits your workflow better
About lux
Lux Let there be Lux! 👾 Lux is a fast and simple video downloader built with Go. Installation Prerequisites Install via go install Homebrew (macOS only) Arch Linux Void Linux Scoop on Windows Chocolatey on Windows Cask on Windows/macOS/Linux Getting Started Download a video Download anything else Download playlist Multiple inputs Resume a download Auto retry Cookies Proxy Multi Thread Short link bilibili Use specified Referrer Specify the output path and name Debug Mode Reuse extracted data Options Download: Network: Playlist: Filesystem: Subtitle: Youku: aria2: Supported Sites Known issues 优酷 西瓜/头条视频…
About crw
fastCRW Turn URLs into clean markdown or structured JSON with one engine for search, scrape, map, crawl, and extract. Run it locally as a small Rust binary or use the managed API. Get 1000 free credits → · Install · Docs No credit card. Continue with GitHub. One command install Runs local and free, no account needed. To use the Cloud, paste your key into the same command and it installs the binary, connects the key, and registers the MCP server with the AI coding tools you already have: Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode and Windsurf are picked up automatically when they are already set up; nothing…
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Frequently asked questions
Is lux or crw more popular?
lux has 31,818 GitHub stars and crw has 1,208. lux has the larger community by that measure.
Are lux and crw free?
Both are open source. lux is licensed under MIT and crw under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lux and crw?
lux is written in Go and crw in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, lux or crw?
Choose lux if you want the larger community (31,818 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose crw if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.