head to head · open source
playwright vs Scrapling
playwright has 96,380 GitHub stars, 6,469 forks, 185 open issues and last shipped today. Scrapling has 82,464 stars, 8,405 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. playwright leads on adoption by 17% (96,380 vs 82,464 stars). playwright is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; Scrapling is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause. playwright has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Scrapling 10%. playwright was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (automation, playwright), 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
| playwright | Scrapling | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 82K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.5K | ⑂ 8.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick playwright 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 Scrapling if
- You want the Scrapling feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Scrapling fits your workflow better
About playwright
Playwright is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed TypeScript framework for web testing and browser automation that drives Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit through a single API, built for end to end testers, browser automation script writers, and AI coding agents.
read the full playwright overview →
About Scrapling
Scrapling is an adaptive Python web scraping framework for developers, data teams, and regular users who need anything from a single request to a full scale crawl without rewriting selectors every time a site changes.
read the full Scrapling overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is playwright or Scrapling more popular?
playwright has 96,380 GitHub stars and Scrapling has 82,464. playwright has the larger community by that measure.
Are playwright and Scrapling free?
Both are open source. playwright is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Scrapling under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between playwright and Scrapling?
playwright is written in TypeScript and Scrapling in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, playwright or Scrapling?
Choose playwright if you want the larger community (96,380 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Scrapling if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.