head to head · open source
Skyvern vs ferret
Skyvern has 23,039 GitHub stars, 2,167 forks, 234 open issues and last shipped today. ferret has 6,013 stars, 324 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Skyvern leads on adoption by 283% (23,039 vs 6,013 stars). Skyvern is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; ferret is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Skyvern has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, ferret 5%. Skyvern was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (browser-automation), 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
| Skyvern | ferret | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 6.0K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 324 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Skyvern if
- You weight community size — 23K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ferret if
- You want the ferret feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and ferret fits your workflow better
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 →
About ferret
Ferret is a declarative data automation language and embeddable Go runtime for structured extraction workflows, built for Go developers who need to query, transform, and synchronize structured data across browsers, APIs, databases, and documents from inside their own applications.
read the full ferret overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Skyvern or ferret more popular?
Skyvern has 23,039 GitHub stars and ferret has 6,013. Skyvern has the larger community by that measure.
Are Skyvern and ferret free?
Both are open source. Skyvern is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and ferret under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Skyvern and ferret?
Skyvern is written in Python and ferret in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Skyvern or ferret?
Choose Skyvern if you want the larger community (23,039 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose ferret if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.