head to head · open source
puppeteer vs web-maker
puppeteer has 95,591 GitHub stars, 9,579 forks, 259 open issues and last shipped today. web-maker has 2,699 stars, 324 forks, 120 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. puppeteer leads on adoption by 3,442% (95,591 vs 2,699 stars). puppeteer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; web-maker is written in JavaScript under MIT. puppeteer has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, web-maker 12%. puppeteer was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (web), 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 | web-maker | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-08-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.6K | ⑂ 324 |
| 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 web-maker if
- You want the web-maker feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and web-maker 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 web-maker
Web Maker is an MIT licensed, offline frontend code editor and playground for HTML, CSS and JavaScript experiments that runs entirely on the user's own system, and it is aimed at frontend developers who want CodePen style quick prototyping without a network connection.
read the full web-maker overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is puppeteer or web-maker more popular?
puppeteer has 95,591 GitHub stars and web-maker has 2,699. puppeteer has the larger community by that measure.
Are puppeteer and web-maker free?
Both are open source. puppeteer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and web-maker under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between puppeteer and web-maker?
puppeteer is written in TypeScript and web-maker in JavaScript. 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 web-maker?
Choose puppeteer if you want the larger community (95,591 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose web-maker if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.