head to head · open source
dots vs stagehand
dots has 32,383 GitHub stars, 4,739 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. stagehand has 25,934 stars, 1,808 forks, 376 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dots leads on adoption by 25% (32,383 vs 25,934 stars). dots is written in TypeScript under MIT; stagehand is written in TypeScript under MIT. dots has attracted 15% 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 2 topic tags (ai-agents, 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
| dots | stagehand | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 26K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.7K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick dots if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- 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 dots
dots Every AI agent is a model and a browser. You can swap the model with one flag. The browser is what the website sees. Windows, in PowerShell: Linux: Then open The conversation on the left, the browser on the right, live. It all comes down to the browser When a web agent fails, the model is rarely why. The page never loaded, a challenge appeared, the login expired, the click did not land. All of that happens in the browser, before the model gets to think. So dots is built around one: A real Firefox engine, patched in C++. The fingerprint is decided inside the engine, not painted over with JavaScript that a…
About stagehand
Stagehand is the SDK to extract data and interact with any site on the web. Playwright was built for testing. Stagehand is built for agents, in TypeScript, Python, and Go. Docs · Quickstart · ⭐ Star this repo AI that uses the browser like humans. Sign in once, keep the session, and pull structured data out the other side. Python Go Install Python Go Local runs need Chrome installed. Full setup: Quickstart. Why Stagehand Token efficiency Hybrid accessibilit
read the full stagehand overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is dots or stagehand more popular?
dots has 32,383 GitHub stars and stagehand has 25,934. dots has the larger community by that measure.
Are dots and stagehand free?
Both are open source. dots is licensed under MIT and stagehand under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between dots and stagehand?
dots is written in TypeScript 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, dots or stagehand?
Choose dots if you want the larger community (32,383 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose stagehand if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.