head to head · open source
puppeteer vs shellcheck
puppeteer has 95,601 GitHub stars, 9,580 forks, 259 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. shellcheck has 40,060 stars, 1,946 forks, 1,137 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. puppeteer leads on adoption by 139% (95,601 vs 40,060 stars). puppeteer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; shellcheck is written in Haskell under GPL-3.0. puppeteer has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, shellcheck 5%. 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 | shellcheck | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 40K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Haskell |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.6K | ⑂ 1.9K |
| 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 shellcheck if
- You want the shellcheck feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Haskell
- You evaluated both and shellcheck 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 shellcheck
ShellCheck is a GPLv3 static analysis tool written in Haskell that gives warnings and suggestions for bash and sh shell scripts, aimed at everyone from beginners tripping over cryptic shell error messages to advanced users guarding otherwise working scripts against future corner cases.
read the full shellcheck overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is puppeteer or shellcheck more popular?
puppeteer has 95,601 GitHub stars and shellcheck has 40,060. puppeteer has the larger community by that measure.
Are puppeteer and shellcheck free?
Both are open source. puppeteer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and shellcheck under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between puppeteer and shellcheck?
puppeteer is written in TypeScript and shellcheck in Haskell. 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 shellcheck?
Choose puppeteer if you want the larger community (95,601 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose shellcheck if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.