head to head · open source
Scrapling vs Lightpanda
Scrapling has 82,464 GitHub stars, 8,405 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lightpanda has 35,452 stars, 1,684 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped today. Scrapling leads on adoption by 133% (82,464 vs 35,452 stars). Scrapling is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause; Lightpanda is written in Zig under AGPL-3.0. Scrapling has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Lightpanda 5%. Lightpanda was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (playwright), 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
| Scrapling | Lightpanda | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 82K | ★ 35K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Zig |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.4K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Scrapling if
- You weight community size — 82K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Lightpanda if
- You want the Lightpanda feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Zig
- You evaluated both and Lightpanda fits your workflow better
About Scrapling
Scrapling is an adaptive Python web scraping framework for developers, data teams, and regular users who need anything from a single request to a full scale crawl without rewriting selectors every time a site changes.
read the full Scrapling overview →
About Lightpanda
Lightpanda is a headless browser built from scratch in Zig, designed specifically for AI agents and automation tasks. It is not a fork of Chromium or WebKit but a new implementation targeting performance and efficiency in automated web interactions. It lives in the browser automation ecosystem, competing with tools like Puppeteer and Playwright that typically rely on Chromium based headless modes.
read the full Lightpanda overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Scrapling or Lightpanda more popular?
Scrapling has 82,464 GitHub stars and Lightpanda has 35,452. Scrapling has the larger community by that measure.
Are Scrapling and Lightpanda free?
Both are open source. Scrapling is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Lightpanda under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Scrapling and Lightpanda?
Scrapling is written in Python and Lightpanda in Zig. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Scrapling or Lightpanda?
Choose Scrapling if you want the larger community (82,464 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose Lightpanda if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.