head to head · open source
obscura vs LanguageTool
obscura has 30,141 GitHub stars, 2,279 forks, 134 open issues and last shipped yesterday. LanguageTool has 15,229 stars, 1,598 forks, 2,148 open issues and last shipped yesterday. obscura leads on adoption by 98% (30,141 vs 15,229 stars). obscura is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; LanguageTool is written in Java under LGPL-2.1. obscura has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, LanguageTool 10%. LanguageTool 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 | LanguageTool | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | LGPL-2.1 |
| Written in | Rust | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick obscura if
- You weight community size — 30K 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 LanguageTool if
- You want the LanguageTool feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-2.1 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and LanguageTool fits your workflow better
About obscura
Obscura The open source headless browser for AI agents and web scraping. Lightweight, stealthy, and built in Rust. Native rendering is here. No Chromium required. 🎉 Capture screenshots, screencast live pages, and export PDFs directly with Obscura. Obscura is a headless browser engine written in Rust, built for web scraping and AI agent automation. It runs real JavaScript via V8, supports the Chrome DevTools Protocol, and acts as a drop in replacement for headless Chrome with Puppeteer and Playwright. Why Obscura over headless Chrome? Obscura inspired Cloudflare Kitesurf’s first prototype Cloudflare began by…
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About LanguageTool
LanguageTool LanguageTool is open source proofreading software for English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Polish, Dutch, and more than 20 other languages. It finds many errors that a simple spell checker cannot detect. LanguageTool Forum How to run your own LanguageTool server HTTP API documentation How to use our public server via HTTP How to use LanguageTool from Java (Javadoc) For more information, please see our homepage, at languagetool.org , this README , and CHANGES . The LanguageTool core (this repo) is freely available under the LGPL 2.1 or later. Docker Try one of the following projects for a…
read the full LanguageTool overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is obscura or LanguageTool more popular?
obscura has 30,141 GitHub stars and LanguageTool has 15,229. obscura has the larger community by that measure.
Are obscura and LanguageTool free?
Both are open source. obscura is licensed under Apache-2.0 and LanguageTool under LGPL-2.1. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between obscura and LanguageTool?
obscura is written in Rust and LanguageTool in Java. 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 LanguageTool?
Choose obscura if you want the larger community (30,141 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose LanguageTool if its feature set, stack or LGPL-2.1 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.