head to head · open source
puppeteer vs carbon-now-cli
puppeteer has 95,590 GitHub stars, 9,576 forks, 259 open issues and last shipped yesterday. carbon-now-cli has 6,034 stars, 126 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. puppeteer leads on adoption by 1,484% (95,590 vs 6,034 stars). puppeteer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; carbon-now-cli is written in TypeScript under MIT. puppeteer has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, carbon-now-cli 2%. puppeteer was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | carbon-now-cli | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 6.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2025-11-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.6K | ⑂ 126 |
| 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 carbon-now-cli if
- You want the carbon-now-cli feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and carbon-now-cli 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 carbon-now-cli
carbon now cli is a TypeScript command line tool that turns source code into Carbon style images straight from the terminal, built for developers who need presentable code snippets for docs, slides, and social posts without opening a browser.
read the full carbon-now-cli overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is puppeteer or carbon-now-cli more popular?
puppeteer has 95,590 GitHub stars and carbon-now-cli has 6,034. puppeteer has the larger community by that measure.
Are puppeteer and carbon-now-cli free?
Both are open source. puppeteer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and carbon-now-cli under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between puppeteer and carbon-now-cli?
puppeteer is written in TypeScript and carbon-now-cli in TypeScript. 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 carbon-now-cli?
Choose puppeteer if you want the larger community (95,590 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose carbon-now-cli if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.