head to head · open source
puppeteer vs Palform
puppeteer has 95,798 GitHub stars, 9,589 forks, 259 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Palform has 49 stars, 2 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. puppeteer leads on adoption by 195,406% (95,798 vs 49 stars). puppeteer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; Palform is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. puppeteer has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Palform 4%. 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 | Palform | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 49 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.6K | ⑂ 2 |
| 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 Palform if
- You want the Palform feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Palform 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 Palform
Palform is a form builder that's: open source end to end encrypted privacy focussed (minimal third party scripts) full featured free to use online on our European hosted secure servers Our entire codebase is open source, including our marketing pages. This repository contains everything needed to operate the service. Architecture Palform is made up of several Rust and JS components. We use Rust with the Rocket framework and SeaORM on the backend. This helps maintain very high performance; the observed memory and CPU consumption in practice has been practically zero. Although implementing features is arguably…
read the full Palform overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is puppeteer or Palform more popular?
puppeteer has 95,798 GitHub stars and Palform has 49. puppeteer has the larger community by that measure.
Are puppeteer and Palform free?
Both are open source. puppeteer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Palform under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between puppeteer and Palform?
puppeteer is written in TypeScript and Palform 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 Palform?
Choose puppeteer if you want the larger community (95,798 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Palform if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.