head to head · open source
stagehand vs ferret
stagehand has 25,934 GitHub stars, 1,808 forks, 376 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ferret has 6,021 stars, 325 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. stagehand leads on adoption by 331% (25,934 vs 6,021 stars). stagehand is written in TypeScript under MIT; ferret is written in Go under Apache-2.0. stagehand has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, ferret 5%. stagehand 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, data-extraction), 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 | ferret | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 6.0K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 325 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick stagehand if
- You weight community size — 26K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- 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 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 →
About ferret
Ferret Try it! Docs CLI Test runner Web worker Explore Ferret v2 Ferret v2 is currently in alpha. You can try the new syntax in the playground and read more about the design behind the new runtime and language capabilities: Try Ferret v2 in the Playground On the Road to Ferret v2 Inside Ferret v2: The New Execution Model Inside Ferret v2: New Language Capabilities Notice: This branch contains the upcoming Ferret v2 . For the stable v1 release, please visit Ferret v1. What is it? Ferret is a declarative first, expression oriented embedded language and runtime for data automation. FQL combines querying…
read the full ferret overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is stagehand or ferret more popular?
stagehand has 25,934 GitHub stars and ferret has 6,021. stagehand has the larger community by that measure.
Are stagehand and ferret free?
Both are open source. stagehand is licensed under MIT and ferret under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between stagehand and ferret?
stagehand is written in TypeScript 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, stagehand or ferret?
Choose stagehand if you want the larger community (25,934 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ferret if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.