head to head · open source
stagehand vs Maxun
stagehand has 24,322 GitHub stars, 1,685 forks, 376 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Maxun has 17,485 stars, 1,509 forks, 105 open issues and last shipped yesterday. stagehand leads on adoption by 39% (24,322 vs 17,485 stars). stagehand is written in TypeScript under MIT; Maxun is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. stagehand has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Maxun 9%. stagehand was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (agents, browser-automation, data-extraction, 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
| stagehand | Maxun | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 17K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick stagehand if
- You weight community size — 24K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- 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 stagehand
Stagehand is the MIT licensed SDK for extracting data and interacting with any site on the web, available in TypeScript, Python, and Go, and aimed at developers building AI agents that need to drive a browser the way a person does rather than at engineers writing test suites.
read the full stagehand 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 stagehand or Maxun more popular?
stagehand has 24,322 GitHub stars and Maxun has 17,485. stagehand has the larger community by that measure.
Are stagehand and Maxun free?
Both are open source. stagehand is licensed under MIT and Maxun under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between stagehand and Maxun?
stagehand is written in TypeScript 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, stagehand or Maxun?
Choose stagehand if you want the larger community (24,322 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Maxun if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.