head to head · open source
stagehand vs browser-search
stagehand has 24,565 GitHub stars, 1,698 forks, 376 open issues and last shipped today. browser-search has 525 stars, 39 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 18 days ago. stagehand leads on adoption by 4,579% (24,565 vs 525 stars). stagehand is written in TypeScript under MIT; browser-search is written in JavaScript under MIT. stagehand has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, browser-search 7%. stagehand was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai, 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
| stagehand | browser-search | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 525 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 39 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick stagehand if
- You weight community size — 25K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick browser-search if
- You want the browser-search feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and browser-search fits your workflow better
About stagehand
Stagehand is the MIT licensed SDK for extracting data and interacting with any site on the web, available in TypeScript, Python, and Go, and aimed at developers building AI agents that need to drive a browser the way a person does rather than at engineers writing test suites.
read the full stagehand overview →
About browser-search
browser search is an MIT licensed JavaScript skill for AI agents — OpenCode, Claude Code, Cursor, OpenClaw and others — that gives an agent a self hosted search, browse and anti bot bypass pipeline built on SearXNG, Camofox and CloakBrowser, aimed at developers who want live web answers without buying API keys or paying per query.
read the full browser-search overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is stagehand or browser-search more popular?
stagehand has 24,565 GitHub stars and browser-search has 525. stagehand has the larger community by that measure.
Are stagehand and browser-search free?
Both are open source. stagehand is licensed under MIT and browser-search under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between stagehand and browser-search?
stagehand is written in TypeScript and browser-search 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, stagehand or browser-search?
Choose stagehand if you want the larger community (24,565 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose browser-search if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.