head to head · open source
puppeteer vs cocoa-way
puppeteer has 95,591 GitHub stars, 9,579 forks, 259 open issues and last shipped today. cocoa-way has 1,032 stars, 23 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. puppeteer leads on adoption by 9,163% (95,591 vs 1,032 stars). puppeteer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; cocoa-way is written in Rust under GPL-3.0. puppeteer has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, cocoa-way 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 | cocoa-way | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 1.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.6K | ⑂ 23 |
| 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 cocoa-way if
- You want the cocoa-way feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and cocoa-way 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 cocoa-way
Cocoa Way is a native macOS Wayland compositor and Linux application control plane, written in Rust and licensed under GPL 3.0, that presents Linux applications through a Metal renderer for macOS users who want Linux desktops and individual Linux GUI applications running alongside their Mac environment rather than inside a remote desktop viewer.
read the full cocoa-way overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is puppeteer or cocoa-way more popular?
puppeteer has 95,591 GitHub stars and cocoa-way has 1,032. puppeteer has the larger community by that measure.
Are puppeteer and cocoa-way free?
Both are open source. puppeteer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and cocoa-way under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between puppeteer and cocoa-way?
puppeteer is written in TypeScript and cocoa-way in Rust. 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 cocoa-way?
Choose puppeteer if you want the larger community (95,591 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose cocoa-way if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.