head to head · open source
scrapy vs Steel
scrapy has 64,413 GitHub stars, 11,964 forks, 394 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Steel has 7,668 stars, 982 forks, 68 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. scrapy leads on adoption by 740% (64,413 vs 7,668 stars). scrapy is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause; Steel is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. scrapy has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, Steel 13%. scrapy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | Steel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 64K | ★ 7.7K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 12K | ⑂ 982 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick scrapy if
- You weight community size — 64K 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 Steel if
- You want the Steel 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 Steel fits your workflow better
About scrapy
Scrapy is a web scraping framework written in Python, distributed under the BSD 3 Clause license, and described in its own README as a tool to extract structured data from websites. It is cross platform and requires Python 3.10 or newer. The project is maintained by Zyte, formerly known as Scrapinghub, together with a broader group of contributors, and it lives in the Python ecosystem as an installable library rather than a hosted service. Its repository is roughly seventeen years old, which places it among the longer running projects in the web scraping space.
read the full scrapy overview →
About Steel
Steel is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed browser API written in TypeScript that gives AI agents and applications cloud browser sessions, so teams can automate the web without building browser infrastructure from scratch.
read the full Steel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is scrapy or Steel more popular?
scrapy has 64,413 GitHub stars and Steel has 7,668. scrapy has the larger community by that measure.
Are scrapy and Steel free?
Both are open source. scrapy is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Steel under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between scrapy and Steel?
scrapy is written in Python and Steel 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 Steel?
Choose scrapy if you want the larger community (64,413 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose Steel if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.