head to head · open source
fingerprintjs vs obscura
fingerprintjs has 28,487 GitHub stars, 2,623 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. obscura has 27,406 stars, 2,011 forks, 134 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fingerprintjs leads on adoption by 4% (28,487 vs 27,406 stars). fingerprintjs is written in TypeScript under MIT; obscura is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. fingerprintjs has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, obscura 7%. obscura was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (browser), 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
| fingerprintjs | obscura | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 27K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 2.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick fingerprintjs if
- You weight community size — 28K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick obscura if
- You want the obscura feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and obscura fits your workflow better
About fingerprintjs
FingerprintJS is an open source, client side browser fingerprinting library that queries browser attributes and computes a hashed visitor identifier from them, aimed at web developers and engineering teams that need to recognise returning browsers without depending on cookies or local storage.
read the full fingerprintjs overview →
About obscura
Obscura is an open source headless browser engine written in Rust, built for web scraping and AI agent automation. It runs real JavaScript through V8, speaks the Chrome DevTools Protocol, and presents itself as a drop in replacement for headless Chrome when driven by Puppeteer or Playwright. The project lives in the browser automation and headless browser corner of the Rust ecosystem, and it ships under the Apache 2.0 license.
read the full obscura overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is fingerprintjs or obscura more popular?
fingerprintjs has 28,487 GitHub stars and obscura has 27,406. fingerprintjs has the larger community by that measure.
Are fingerprintjs and obscura free?
Both are open source. fingerprintjs is licensed under MIT and obscura under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fingerprintjs and obscura?
fingerprintjs is written in TypeScript and obscura 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, fingerprintjs or obscura?
Choose fingerprintjs if you want the larger community (28,487 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose obscura if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.