head to head · open source
proxy_pool vs icrawler
proxy_pool has 23,717 GitHub stars, 5,418 forks, 298 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. icrawler has 933 stars, 181 forks, 31 open issues and last shipped 9 months ago. proxy_pool leads on adoption by 2,442% (23,717 vs 933 stars). proxy_pool is written in Python under MIT; icrawler is written in Python under MIT. proxy_pool has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, icrawler 19%. proxy_pool was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (crawler, spider), 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
| proxy_pool | icrawler | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 933 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-06-15 | 2025-12-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.4K | ⑂ 181 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick proxy_pool if
- You weight community size — 24K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick icrawler if
- You want the icrawler feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and icrawler fits your workflow better
About proxy_pool
proxy pool is a self hosted Python proxy IP pool for web spiders that continuously collects, checks, and serves rotating HTTP proxies from public free proxy sources through a Redis backed pool.
read the full proxy_pool overview →
About icrawler
icrawler is an MIT licensed Python framework for building multi thread crawlers, shipping ready made crawlers for Google, Bing and Baidu image search plus Flickr, and is aimed at developers who need to harvest image or media datasets without writing their own threading, retry and queueing code.
read the full icrawler overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is proxy_pool or icrawler more popular?
proxy_pool has 23,717 GitHub stars and icrawler has 933. proxy_pool has the larger community by that measure.
Are proxy_pool and icrawler free?
Both are open source. proxy_pool is licensed under MIT and icrawler under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between proxy_pool and icrawler?
proxy_pool is written in Python and icrawler 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, proxy_pool or icrawler?
Choose proxy_pool if you want the larger community (23,717 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose icrawler if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.