head to head · open source
puppeteer vs rea
puppeteer has 95,671 GitHub stars, 9,587 forks, 259 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rea has 29,472 stars, 3,500 forks, 70 open issues and last shipped today. puppeteer leads on adoption by 225% (95,671 vs 29,472 stars). puppeteer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; rea is written in TypeScript under MIT. puppeteer has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, rea 12%. rea 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 | rea | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 29K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.6K | ⑂ 3.5K |
| 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 rea if
- You want the rea feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and rea 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 rea
REA is an open source MCP server and CLI that lets AI coding agents — and your terminal — reverse engineer native binaries, JavaScript and Electron apps, .NET assemblies, and websites, with evidence attached to every conclusion.
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Frequently asked questions
Is puppeteer or rea more popular?
puppeteer has 95,671 GitHub stars and rea has 29,472. puppeteer has the larger community by that measure.
Are puppeteer and rea free?
Both are open source. puppeteer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and rea under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between puppeteer and rea?
puppeteer is written in TypeScript and rea in TypeScript. 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 rea?
Choose puppeteer if you want the larger community (95,671 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose rea if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.