head to head · open source
obscura vs hermes-browser-extension
obscura has 27,406 GitHub stars, 2,011 forks, 134 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hermes-browser-extension has 1,542 stars, 147 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. obscura leads on adoption by 1,677% (27,406 vs 1,542 stars). obscura is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; hermes-browser-extension is written in JavaScript under MIT. obscura has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, hermes-browser-extension 10%. obscura was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| obscura | hermes-browser-extension | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.0K | ⑂ 147 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick obscura if
- You weight community size — 27K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick hermes-browser-extension if
- You want the hermes-browser-extension feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and hermes-browser-extension fits your workflow better
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 →
About hermes-browser-extension
Hermes Browser Extension is a Chrome, Edge, and Chromium side panel that connects the web page a user is viewing to a real Hermes Agent runtime, whether that runtime runs locally or on a gateway the user controls.
read the full hermes-browser-extension overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is obscura or hermes-browser-extension more popular?
obscura has 27,406 GitHub stars and hermes-browser-extension has 1,542. obscura has the larger community by that measure.
Are obscura and hermes-browser-extension free?
Both are open source. obscura is licensed under Apache-2.0 and hermes-browser-extension under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between obscura and hermes-browser-extension?
obscura is written in Rust and hermes-browser-extension in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, obscura or hermes-browser-extension?
Choose obscura if you want the larger community (27,406 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose hermes-browser-extension if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.