head to head · open source
proxy_pool vs katana
proxy_pool has 23,707 GitHub stars, 5,418 forks, 298 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. katana has 17,518 stars, 1,183 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. proxy_pool leads on adoption by 35% (23,707 vs 17,518 stars). proxy_pool is written in Python under MIT; katana is written in Go under MIT. proxy_pool has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, katana 7%. katana was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (crawler), 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| proxy_pool | katana | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 18K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-06-15 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.4K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 katana if
- You want the katana feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and katana 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 katana
Katana is an open source, MIT licensed crawling and spidering framework written in Go, built for security engineers and automation pipelines that need to map web applications at scale rather than explore them by hand.
read the full katana overview →
More in Data & Analytics
Related comparisons
More Data Extraction & Web Scraping projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Data Extraction & Web Scraping field.
Frequently asked questions
Is proxy_pool or katana more popular?
proxy_pool has 23,707 GitHub stars and katana has 17,518. proxy_pool has the larger community by that measure.
Are proxy_pool and katana free?
Both are open source. proxy_pool is licensed under MIT and katana under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between proxy_pool and katana?
proxy_pool is written in Python and katana 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, proxy_pool or katana?
Choose proxy_pool if you want the larger community (23,707 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose katana if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.