head to head · open source
Scrapling vs reader
Scrapling has 81,798 GitHub stars, 8,307 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. reader has 560 stars, 40 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Scrapling leads on adoption by 14,507% (81,798 vs 560 stars). Scrapling is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause; reader is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Scrapling has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, reader 7%. Scrapling was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ai, crawler, data-extraction), 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 | reader | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 82K | ★ 560 |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-08-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.3K | ⑂ 40 |
| 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 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 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 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 Scrapling or reader more popular?
Scrapling has 81,798 GitHub stars and reader has 560. Scrapling has the larger community by that measure.
Are Scrapling and reader free?
Both are open source. Scrapling is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and reader under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Scrapling and reader?
Scrapling 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, Scrapling or reader?
Choose Scrapling if you want the larger community (81,798 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose reader if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.