head to head · open source
selenium vs Hercules
selenium has 34,499 GitHub stars, 8,718 forks, 188 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Hercules has 1,162 stars, 190 forks, 39 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. selenium leads on adoption by 2,869% (34,499 vs 1,162 stars). selenium is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Hercules is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. selenium has attracted 25% as many forks as stars, Hercules 16%. selenium 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
| selenium | Hercules | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Java | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-08-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.7K | ⑂ 190 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick selenium if
- You weight community size — 34K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Hercules if
- You want the Hercules feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Hercules fits your workflow better
About selenium
Selenium is a browser automation framework and ecosystem — an umbrella project providing infrastructure for the W3C WebDriver specification, a platform and language neutral coding interface for driving all major web browsers — aimed at developers and quality engineers who automate browser behaviour from Java, .NET, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, or Rust.
read the full selenium overview →
About Hercules
Hercules is an open source, AGPL 3.0 testing agent that turns plain Gherkin feature files into automated end to end UI, API, security, accessibility and visual tests for QA engineers, developers and platform teams who need browser level coverage without writing or maintaining test code.
read the full Hercules overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is selenium or Hercules more popular?
selenium has 34,499 GitHub stars and Hercules has 1,162. selenium has the larger community by that measure.
Are selenium and Hercules free?
Both are open source. selenium is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Hercules under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between selenium and Hercules?
selenium is written in Java and Hercules in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, selenium or Hercules?
Choose selenium if you want the larger community (34,499 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Hercules if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.