head to head · open source
CloakBrowser vs Skyvern
CloakBrowser has 31,578 GitHub stars, 2,615 forks, 227 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Skyvern has 23,039 stars, 2,167 forks, 234 open issues and last shipped today. CloakBrowser leads on adoption by 37% (31,578 vs 23,039 stars). CloakBrowser is written in Python under MIT; Skyvern is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. CloakBrowser has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Skyvern 9%. Skyvern was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (browser-automation, playwright), 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
| CloakBrowser | Skyvern | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 23K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 2.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick CloakBrowser if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Skyvern if
- You want the Skyvern 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 Skyvern fits your workflow better
About CloakBrowser
CloakBrowser is a stealth Chromium build for Python and JavaScript teams that need browser automation to survive bot detection systems, aimed at scraping and AI agent engineers who want to replace Playwright or Puppeteer without rewriting their code.
read the full CloakBrowser overview →
About Skyvern
Skyvern is an open source Python project for automating browser based workflows with LLMs and computer vision. It lives in the browser automation and AI agent ecosystem, and it provides a Playwright compatible SDK that adds AI functionality on top of Playwright. The project also includes a no code workflow builder, so technical users can work through code while non technical users can define tasks through the interface.
read the full Skyvern overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloakBrowser or Skyvern more popular?
CloakBrowser has 31,578 GitHub stars and Skyvern has 23,039. CloakBrowser has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloakBrowser and Skyvern free?
Both are open source. CloakBrowser is licensed under MIT and Skyvern under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CloakBrowser and Skyvern?
CloakBrowser is written in Python and Skyvern 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, CloakBrowser or Skyvern?
Choose CloakBrowser if you want the larger community (31,578 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Skyvern if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.