head to head · open source
scrapy vs browsertrix-crawler
scrapy has 65,180 GitHub stars, 12,093 forks, 394 open issues and last shipped yesterday. browsertrix-crawler has 1,183 stars, 154 forks, 145 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. scrapy leads on adoption by 5,410% (65,180 vs 1,183 stars). scrapy is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause; browsertrix-crawler is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. scrapy has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, browsertrix-crawler 13%. scrapy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (crawler, crawling), 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
| scrapy | browsertrix-crawler | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 65K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 12K | ⑂ 154 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick scrapy if
- You weight community size — 65K 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 browsertrix-crawler if
- You want the browsertrix-crawler feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and browsertrix-crawler fits your workflow better
About scrapy
.. logo image:: :target: :alt: Scrapy :width: 480px .. version image:: :target: :alt: PyPI Version .. python version image:: :target: :alt: Supported Python Versions .. tests image:: :target: :alt: Tests .. coverage image:: :target: :alt: Coverage report .. conda image:: :target: :alt: Conda Version .. deepwiki image:: :target: :alt: Ask DeepWiki Scrapy is a web scraping framework to extract structured data from websites. It is cross platform, and requires Python 3.10+. It is maintained by Zyte (formerly Scrapinghub) and many other contributors . .. many other contributors: .. Scrapy: .. Zyte: Install with…
read the full scrapy overview →
About browsertrix-crawler
Browsertrix Crawler 1.x Browsertrix Crawler is a standalone browser based high fidelity crawling system, designed to run a complex, customizable browser based crawl in a single Docker container. Browsertrix Crawler uses Puppeteer to control one or more Brave Browser browser windows in parallel. Data is captured through the Chrome Devtools Protocol (CDP) in the browser. For information on how to use and develop Browsertrix Crawler, see the hosted Browsertrix Crawler documentation. For information on how to build the docs locally, see the docs page. Support Initial support for 0.x version of Browsertrix Crawler…
read the full browsertrix-crawler overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is scrapy or browsertrix-crawler more popular?
scrapy has 65,180 GitHub stars and browsertrix-crawler has 1,183. scrapy has the larger community by that measure.
Are scrapy and browsertrix-crawler free?
Both are open source. scrapy is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and browsertrix-crawler under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between scrapy and browsertrix-crawler?
scrapy is written in Python and browsertrix-crawler 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, scrapy or browsertrix-crawler?
Choose scrapy if you want the larger community (65,180 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose browsertrix-crawler if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.