head to head · open source
ponytail vs invisible_playwright_mcp
ponytail has 144,523 GitHub stars, 7,735 forks, 270 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. invisible_playwright_mcp has 31,631 stars, 4,677 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped today. ponytail leads on adoption by 357% (144,523 vs 31,631 stars). ponytail is written in JavaScript under MIT; invisible_playwright_mcp is written in Python under MIT. ponytail has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, invisible_playwright_mcp 15%. invisible_playwright_mcp was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (claude-code-plugin), 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
| ponytail | invisible_playwright_mcp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 145K | ★ 32K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.7K | ⑂ 4.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ponytail if
- You weight community size — 145K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick invisible_playwright_mcp if
- You want the invisible_playwright_mcp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and invisible_playwright_mcp fits your workflow better
About ponytail
Ponytail is an open source agent skill for JavaScript and LLM based coding tools that makes an AI agent write the minimum working code for a task, and it is built for developers and teams running agents such as Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor against real repositories.
read the full ponytail overview →
About invisible_playwright_mcp
invisible playwright mcp is an MIT licensed Python browser agent and MCP server that gives coding assistants and standalone users an anti detect stealth browser they can direct in plain language, without captchas or blocks.
read the full invisible_playwright_mcp overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ponytail or invisible_playwright_mcp more popular?
ponytail has 144,523 GitHub stars and invisible_playwright_mcp has 31,631. ponytail has the larger community by that measure.
Are ponytail and invisible_playwright_mcp free?
Both are open source. ponytail is licensed under MIT and invisible_playwright_mcp under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ponytail and invisible_playwright_mcp?
ponytail is written in JavaScript and invisible_playwright_mcp 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, ponytail or invisible_playwright_mcp?
Choose ponytail if you want the larger community (144,523 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose invisible_playwright_mcp if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.