head to head · open source
CloakBrowser vs Maxun
CloakBrowser has 31,528 GitHub stars, 2,612 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Maxun has 17,485 stars, 1,509 forks, 105 open issues and last shipped yesterday. CloakBrowser leads on adoption by 80% (31,528 vs 17,485 stars). CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT; Maxun is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. CloakBrowser has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Maxun 9%. Maxun 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, playwright), 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
| CloakBrowser | Maxun | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 17K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-13 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick CloakBrowser if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Maxun if
- You want the Maxun feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Maxun fits your workflow better
About CloakBrowser
CloakBrowser is a stealth Chromium build for Python and JavaScript teams that need browser automation to survive bot detection systems, aimed at scraping and AI agent engineers who want to replace Playwright or Puppeteer without rewriting their code.
read the full CloakBrowser overview →
About Maxun
Maxun is an open source no code web data platform for real time web scraping, crawling, search, and AI data extraction. It turns websites into structured data and presents robots that collect information without code. The TypeScript project is released under AGPL 3.0, with topics placing it in browser automation, Playwright, crawler, data extraction, and robotic process automation.
read the full Maxun overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloakBrowser or Maxun more popular?
CloakBrowser has 31,528 GitHub stars and Maxun has 17,485. CloakBrowser has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloakBrowser and Maxun free?
Both are open source. CloakBrowser is licensed under MIT and Maxun under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CloakBrowser and Maxun?
CloakBrowser is written in Python and Maxun 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, CloakBrowser or Maxun?
Choose CloakBrowser if you want the larger community (31,528 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Maxun if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.