head to head · open source
obscura vs Screenity
obscura has 30,141 GitHub stars, 2,279 forks, 134 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Screenity has 18,894 stars, 1,538 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. obscura leads on adoption by 60% (30,141 vs 18,894 stars). obscura is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; Screenity is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. obscura has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Screenity 8%. 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 | Screenity | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 19K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| 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 Screenity if
- You want the Screenity feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and Screenity 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…
read the full obscura overview →
About Screenity
Screenity ✨ Screenity's open source work is sponsored by Recall.ai API for desktop recording If you’re looking for a hosted desktop recording API, consider checking out Recall.ai, an API that records Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, in person meetings, and more. The free and privacy friendly screen recorder with no limits 🎥 Get it now it's free! Screenity is a powerful privacy friendly screen recorder and annotation tool to make better videos for work, education, and more. You can create stunning product demos, tutorials, presentations, or share feedback with your team all for free. Want to support the…
read the full Screenity overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is obscura or Screenity more popular?
obscura has 30,141 GitHub stars and Screenity has 18,894. obscura has the larger community by that measure.
Are obscura and Screenity free?
Both are open source. obscura is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Screenity under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between obscura and Screenity?
obscura is written in Rust and Screenity 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 Screenity?
Choose obscura if you want the larger community (30,141 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Screenity if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.