head to head · open source
puppeteer vs ministack
puppeteer has 95,615 GitHub stars, 9,578 forks, 259 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ministack has 4,675 stars, 458 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped yesterday. puppeteer leads on adoption by 1,945% (95,615 vs 4,675 stars). puppeteer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; ministack is written in Python under MIT. puppeteer has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, ministack 10%. ministack 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 | ministack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 4.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-21 | 2026-09-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.6K | ⑂ 458 |
| 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 ministack if
- You want the ministack feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and ministack 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 ministack
MiniStack is a free, MIT licensed local AWS emulator written in Python that runs more than 60 AWS services on a single port, built for developers, testers and CI pipelines that need AWS compatible infrastructure without touching a real cloud account.
read the full ministack overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is puppeteer or ministack more popular?
puppeteer has 95,615 GitHub stars and ministack has 4,675. puppeteer has the larger community by that measure.
Are puppeteer and ministack free?
Both are open source. puppeteer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ministack under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between puppeteer and ministack?
puppeteer is written in TypeScript and ministack in Python. 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 ministack?
Choose puppeteer if you want the larger community (95,615 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose ministack if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.