head to head · open source
puppeteer vs validator
puppeteer has 95,657 GitHub stars, 9,587 forks, 259 open issues and last shipped yesterday. validator has 1,988 stars, 336 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. puppeteer leads on adoption by 4,712% (95,657 vs 1,988 stars). puppeteer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; validator is written in Java under MIT. puppeteer has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, validator 17%. 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 | validator | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-10-04 | 2026-10-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.6K | ⑂ 336 |
| 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 validator if
- You want the validator feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and validator 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 validator
The Nu Html Checker (vnu) is an MIT licensed Java tool and HTTP service for catching mistakes in HTML, CSS, and SVG documents, aimed at developers who want command line, scripted, or self hosted web standards validation.
read the full validator overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is puppeteer or validator more popular?
puppeteer has 95,657 GitHub stars and validator has 1,988. puppeteer has the larger community by that measure.
Are puppeteer and validator free?
Both are open source. puppeteer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and validator under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between puppeteer and validator?
puppeteer is written in TypeScript and validator in Java. 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 validator?
Choose puppeteer if you want the larger community (95,657 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose validator if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.