head to head · open source
lux vs icrawler
lux has 31,821 GitHub stars, 3,331 forks, 545 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. icrawler has 935 stars, 181 forks, 31 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. lux leads on adoption by 3,303% (31,821 vs 935 stars). lux is written in Go under MIT; icrawler is written in Python under MIT. lux has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, icrawler 19%. lux 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 | icrawler | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 935 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-03-29 | 2025-12-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 181 |
| 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 icrawler if
- You want the icrawler feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and icrawler 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 icrawler
icrawler ======== .. image:: :target: :alt: PyPI Version .. image:: :target: :alt: Anaconda Version .. image:: :alt: Python Version .. image:: :alt: License Introduction Documentation: Try it with pip install icrawler or conda install c hellock icrawler . This package is a mini framework of web crawlers. With modularization design, it is easy to use and extend. It supports media data like images and videos very well, and can also be applied to texts and other type of files. Scrapy is heavy and powerful, while icrawler is tiny and flexible. With this package, you can write a multiple thread crawler easily by…
read the full icrawler overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lux or icrawler more popular?
lux has 31,821 GitHub stars and icrawler has 935. lux has the larger community by that measure.
Are lux and icrawler free?
Both are open source. lux is licensed under MIT and icrawler under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lux and icrawler?
lux is written in Go and icrawler 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, lux or icrawler?
Choose lux if you want the larger community (31,821 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose icrawler if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.