head to head · open source
SingleFile vs buster
SingleFile has 22,811 GitHub stars, 1,432 forks, 101 open issues and last shipped yesterday. buster has 9,359 stars, 697 forks, 50 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. SingleFile leads on adoption by 144% (22,811 vs 9,359 stars). SingleFile is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; buster is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. SingleFile has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, buster 7%. SingleFile was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (chrome-extension), 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
| SingleFile | buster | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 9.4K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-06-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 697 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick SingleFile if
- You weight community size — 23K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick buster if
- You want the buster feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and buster fits your workflow better
About SingleFile
SingleFile SingleFile helps you to save a complete web page into a single HTML file. SingleFile is a Web Extension (and a CLI tool) compatible with Chrome, Firefox (Desktop and Mobile), Microsoft Edge, Safari, Vivaldi, Brave, Waterfox, Yandex browser, and Opera. Table of Contents SingleFile Table of Contents Demo Install Getting started Additional notes FAQ Release notes Known Issues and Troubleshooting Command Line Interface (SingleFile CLI) Integration with user scripts File format comparison Projects using/compatible with SingleFile Privacy Policy Contributors Code derived from third party projects Icons…
read the full SingleFile overview →
About buster
Buster: Captcha Solver for Humans Sponsors Lenso.ai Explore billions of images from all around the web. Search for places, people, duplicates, and more. Supporting the Project The continued development of Buster is made possible thanks to the support of awesome backers. If you'd like to join them, please consider contributing with Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin. Description Buster is a browser extension which helps you to solve difficult CAPTCHAs by completing reCAPTCHA audio challenges using speech recognition. Challenges are solved by clicking on the extension button at the bottom of the reCAPTCHA widget…
read the full buster overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SingleFile or buster more popular?
SingleFile has 22,811 GitHub stars and buster has 9,359. SingleFile has the larger community by that measure.
Are SingleFile and buster free?
Both are open source. SingleFile is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and buster under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between SingleFile and buster?
SingleFile is written in JavaScript and buster in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, SingleFile or buster?
Choose SingleFile if you want the larger community (22,811 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose buster if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.