head to head · open source
Scrapegraph-ai vs reader
Scrapegraph-ai has 31,140 GitHub stars, 3,141 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. reader has 561 stars, 40 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Scrapegraph-ai leads on adoption by 5,451% (31,140 vs 561 stars). Scrapegraph-ai is written in Python under MIT; reader is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Scrapegraph-ai has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, reader 7%. Scrapegraph-ai was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 6 topic tags (ai-crawler, crawler, data-extraction, firecrawl-alternative), 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
| Scrapegraph-ai | reader | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 561 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-07 | 2026-08-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 40 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Scrapegraph-ai if
- You weight community size — 31K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick reader if
- You want the reader feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and reader fits your workflow better
About Scrapegraph-ai
ScrapeGraphAI is an open source Python library for web scraping that combines large language models with direct graph logic to build scraping pipelines. It lives in the Python ecosystem and is distributed under the MIT license, with the reference package published on PyPI as scrapegraphai . Rather than requiring a developer to hand write selectors for every page, the library accepts a natural language prompt describing the information to extract, alongside a source URL or local document, and returns structured results. It is designed around the idea expressed in its own tagline, "You Only Scrape Once," meaning th…
read the full Scrapegraph-ai overview →
About reader
Reader is an Apache 2.0 TypeScript library and hosted service that scrapes, crawls, and drives stealth headless browsers to deliver clean Markdown to AI agents, built for developers who need production grade web access without assembling Puppeteer, stealth plugins, and proxy infrastructure by hand.
read the full reader overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Scrapegraph-ai or reader more popular?
Scrapegraph-ai has 31,140 GitHub stars and reader has 561. Scrapegraph-ai has the larger community by that measure.
Are Scrapegraph-ai and reader free?
Both are open source. Scrapegraph-ai is licensed under MIT and reader under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Scrapegraph-ai and reader?
Scrapegraph-ai is written in Python and reader 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, Scrapegraph-ai or reader?
Choose Scrapegraph-ai if you want the larger community (31,140 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose reader if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.