head to head · open source
Browser Use vs stagehand
Browser Use has 115,379 GitHub stars, 12,695 forks, 421 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. stagehand has 24,565 stars, 1,698 forks, 376 open issues and last shipped today. Browser Use leads on adoption by 370% (115,379 vs 24,565 stars). Browser Use is written in Python under MIT; stagehand is written in TypeScript under MIT. Browser Use has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, stagehand 7%. stagehand was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (ai-agents, browser-automation, playwright, python), 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
| Browser Use | stagehand | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 115K | ★ 25K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 13K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Browser Use if
- You weight community size — 115K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick stagehand if
- You want the stagehand feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and stagehand fits your workflow better
About Browser Use
Browser Use is an open source Python library and hosted platform that enables AI agents to control web browsers programmatically. It lives in the AI agent and browser automation ecosystem, built on Playwright and designed to let LLMs interact with websites as a human would—clicking, filling forms, solving CAPTCHAs, and navigating dynamic interfaces. The project provides three deployment paths: a fully hosted cloud service, a command line interface for existing agents, and a local Python library for custom integrations.
read the full Browser Use overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Browser Use or stagehand more popular?
Browser Use has 115,379 GitHub stars and stagehand has 24,565. Browser Use has the larger community by that measure.
Are Browser Use and stagehand free?
Both are open source. Browser Use is licensed under MIT and stagehand under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Browser Use and stagehand?
Browser Use is written in Python and stagehand in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Browser Use or stagehand?
Choose Browser Use if you want the larger community (115,379 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose stagehand if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.