head to head · open source
obscura vs qutebrowser
obscura has 30,307 GitHub stars, 2,291 forks, 134 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. qutebrowser has 11,737 stars, 1,141 forks, 1,335 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. obscura leads on adoption by 158% (30,307 vs 11,737 stars). obscura is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; qutebrowser is written in Python under GPL-3.0. obscura has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, qutebrowser 10%. obscura was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (browser), 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
| obscura | qutebrowser | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 12K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick obscura if
- You weight community size — 30K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick qutebrowser if
- You want the qutebrowser feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and qutebrowser fits your workflow better
About obscura
Obscura The open source headless browser for AI agents and web scraping. Lightweight, stealthy, and built in Rust. Native rendering is here. No Chromium required. 🎉 Capture screenshots, screencast live pages, and export PDFs directly with Obscura. Obscura is a headless browser engine written in Rust, built for web scraping and AI agent automation. It runs real JavaScript via V8, supports the Chrome DevTools Protocol, and acts as a drop in replacement for headless Chrome with Puppeteer and Playwright. Why Obscura over headless Chrome? Obscura inspired Cloudflare Kitesurf’s first prototype Cloudflare began by…
read the full obscura overview →
About qutebrowser
// SPDX License Identifier: GPL 3.0 or later // If you are reading this in plaintext or on PyPi: // // A rendered version is available at: // qutebrowser =========== // QUTE WEB HIDE image:qutebrowser/icons/qutebrowser 64x64.png[qutebrowser logo] A keyboard driven, vim like browser based on Python and Qt. image: Status", link=" image: badge",link=" link: link: link: // QUTE WEB HIDE END qutebrowser is a keyboard focused browser with a minimal GUI. It's based on Python and Qt and free software, licensed under the GPL. It was inspired by other browsers/addons like dwb and Vimperator/Pentadactyl. // QUTE WEB HIDE…
read the full qutebrowser overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is obscura or qutebrowser more popular?
obscura has 30,307 GitHub stars and qutebrowser has 11,737. obscura has the larger community by that measure.
Are obscura and qutebrowser free?
Both are open source. obscura is licensed under Apache-2.0 and qutebrowser under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between obscura and qutebrowser?
obscura is written in Rust and qutebrowser in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, obscura or qutebrowser?
Choose obscura if you want the larger community (30,307 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose qutebrowser if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.