head to head · open source
puppeteer vs npkill
puppeteer has 95,669 GitHub stars, 9,588 forks, 259 open issues and last shipped yesterday. npkill has 9,463 stars, 257 forks, 24 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. puppeteer leads on adoption by 911% (95,669 vs 9,463 stars). puppeteer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; npkill is written in TypeScript under MIT. puppeteer has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, npkill 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 | npkill | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 9.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-07 | 2026-09-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.6K | ⑂ 257 |
| 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 npkill if
- You want the npkill feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and npkill 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 npkill
npkill is a command line utility for JavaScript and TypeScript developers who want to find every node modules directory on their machine, see how much disk space each one occupies, and delete the ones they no longer need.
read the full npkill overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is puppeteer or npkill more popular?
puppeteer has 95,669 GitHub stars and npkill has 9,463. puppeteer has the larger community by that measure.
Are puppeteer and npkill free?
Both are open source. puppeteer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and npkill under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between puppeteer and npkill?
puppeteer is written in TypeScript and npkill 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 npkill?
Choose puppeteer if you want the larger community (95,669 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose npkill if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.