head to head · open source
scrapy vs VirtualBrowser
scrapy has 65,180 GitHub stars, 12,093 forks, 394 open issues and last shipped yesterday. VirtualBrowser has 3,245 stars, 522 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 18 days ago. scrapy leads on adoption by 1,909% (65,180 vs 3,245 stars). scrapy is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause; VirtualBrowser is written in Vue under BSD-3-Clause. scrapy has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, VirtualBrowser 16%. scrapy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (web-scraping), 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 | VirtualBrowser | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 65K | ★ 3.2K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Python | Vue |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 12K | ⑂ 522 |
| 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 VirtualBrowser if
- You want the VirtualBrowser feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Vue
- You evaluated both and VirtualBrowser 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 VirtualBrowser
简体中文 English VirtualBrowser VirtualBrowser 是一款基于 Chromium 的指纹浏览器，支持在单台 Windows 7 及以上设备上创建并管理多个相互隔离的浏览器环境。Mac、Android、Linux 等平台正在规划中。 浏览器指纹 指通过采集浏览器、操作系统与硬件等特征（如 User Agent、语言、分辨率、字体、Canvas/WebGL 噪声等）生成可用于识别或关联用户的数字签名。VirtualBrowser 帮助你在合规前提下隔离各环境的指纹，降低账号关联与追踪风险。 特性 多环境隔离 ：一台机器上创建多套独立指纹配置 集中管理 ：统一创建、启动、编辑与删除浏览器环境 丰富指纹项 ：覆盖 UA、代理、语言/时区、WebRTC、地理位置、Canvas/WebGL、AudioContext 等（见下方列表） 自动化友好 ：兼容 Playwright 等 Chromium 生态工具，示例见 automation 快速开始 安装 从 Releases 或官网下载最新安装包并完成安装：virtualbrowser.cc · vbbrowser.com 创建环境 1. 打开 VirtualBrowser，点击「创建浏览器」 2. 在弹窗中修改配置，或直接使用默认值 启动环境 1. 在环境列表中点击「启动」 2. 新打开的窗口即为该环境的独立指纹实例 指纹能力 可使用…
read the full VirtualBrowser overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is scrapy or VirtualBrowser more popular?
scrapy has 65,180 GitHub stars and VirtualBrowser has 3,245. scrapy has the larger community by that measure.
Are scrapy and VirtualBrowser free?
Both are open source. scrapy is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and VirtualBrowser under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between scrapy and VirtualBrowser?
scrapy is written in Python and VirtualBrowser in Vue. 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 VirtualBrowser?
Choose scrapy if you want the larger community (65,180 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose VirtualBrowser if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.