head to head · open source
puppeteer vs plandex
puppeteer has 95,643 GitHub stars, 9,586 forks, 259 open issues and last shipped yesterday. plandex has 15,687 stars, 1,178 forks, 66 open issues and last shipped 1.0 years ago. puppeteer leads on adoption by 510% (95,643 vs 15,687 stars). puppeteer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; plandex is written in Go under MIT. puppeteer has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, plandex 8%. puppeteer was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (developer-tools), 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
| puppeteer | plandex | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 16K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-02 | 2025-10-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.6K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick puppeteer if
- You weight community size — 96K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick plandex if
- You want the plandex feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and plandex fits your workflow better
About puppeteer
Puppeteer is an Apache 2.0 JavaScript and TypeScript library that provides a high level API for driving Chrome and Firefox over the DevTools Protocol or WebDriver BiDi, written for developers who automate browsers from Node.js.
read the full puppeteer overview →
About plandex
Plandex is an open source, terminal based AI coding agent for developers who need to plan and execute large coding tasks spanning dozens of files in real world projects.
read the full plandex overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is puppeteer or plandex more popular?
puppeteer has 95,643 GitHub stars and plandex has 15,687. puppeteer has the larger community by that measure.
Are puppeteer and plandex free?
Both are open source. puppeteer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and plandex under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between puppeteer and plandex?
puppeteer is written in TypeScript and plandex in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, puppeteer or plandex?
Choose puppeteer if you want the larger community (95,643 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose plandex if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.