head to head · open source
puppeteer vs jsonhero-web
puppeteer has 95,590 GitHub stars, 9,576 forks, 259 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jsonhero-web has 10,866 stars, 663 forks, 69 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. puppeteer leads on adoption by 780% (95,590 vs 10,866 stars). puppeteer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; jsonhero-web is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. puppeteer has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, jsonhero-web 6%. puppeteer was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (developer-tools), 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
| puppeteer | jsonhero-web | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 11K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2025-11-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.6K | ⑂ 663 |
| 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 jsonhero-web if
- You want the jsonhero-web feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and jsonhero-web 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 jsonhero-web
JSON Hero is an open source, browser based JSON explorer written in TypeScript and licensed under Apache 2.0, built for developers who need to read, search and navigate JSON documents quickly.
read the full jsonhero-web overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is puppeteer or jsonhero-web more popular?
puppeteer has 95,590 GitHub stars and jsonhero-web has 10,866. puppeteer has the larger community by that measure.
Are puppeteer and jsonhero-web free?
Both are open source. puppeteer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and jsonhero-web under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between puppeteer and jsonhero-web?
puppeteer is written in TypeScript and jsonhero-web 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 jsonhero-web?
Choose puppeteer if you want the larger community (95,590 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose jsonhero-web if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.