head to head · open source
puppeteer vs lapce
puppeteer has 95,791 GitHub stars, 9,600 forks, 259 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lapce has 38,975 stars, 1,359 forks, 901 open issues and last shipped 25 days ago. puppeteer leads on adoption by 146% (95,791 vs 38,975 stars). puppeteer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; lapce is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. puppeteer has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, lapce 3%. 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 | lapce | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 39K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.6K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| 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 lapce if
- You want the lapce feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and lapce fits your workflow better
About puppeteer
Puppeteer Puppeteer is a JavaScript library which provides a high level API to control Chrome or Firefox over the DevTools Protocol or WebDriver BiDi. Puppeteer runs in the headless (no visible UI) by default Get started API FAQ Contributing Troubleshooting Installation :::note Modern package managers (including npm (see the RFC), pnpm, Yarn, Bun, and Deno) block dependency install scripts by default. If the install script is blocked, Puppeteer will not download the browser during installation, leading to runtime errors. You can manually download the required browsers after installation by running…
read the full puppeteer overview →
About lapce
Lapce Lightning fast And Powerful Code Editor Lapce (IPA: /læps/) is written in pure Rust, with a UI in Floem. It is designed with Rope Science from the Xi Editor, enabling lightning fast computation, and leverages wgpu for rendering. More information about the features of Lapce can be found on the main website and user documentation can be found on GitBook. Features Built in LSP (Language Server Protocol) support to give you intelligent code features such as: completion, diagnostics and code actions Modal editing support as first class citizen (Vim like, and toggleable) Built in remote development support…
read the full lapce overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is puppeteer or lapce more popular?
puppeteer has 95,791 GitHub stars and lapce has 38,975. puppeteer has the larger community by that measure.
Are puppeteer and lapce free?
Both are open source. puppeteer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and lapce under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between puppeteer and lapce?
puppeteer is written in TypeScript and lapce 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 lapce?
Choose puppeteer if you want the larger community (95,791 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose lapce if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.