head to head · open source
stagehand vs Steel
stagehand has 25,934 GitHub stars, 1,808 forks, 376 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Steel has 7,916 stars, 1,004 forks, 68 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. stagehand leads on adoption by 228% (25,934 vs 7,916 stars). stagehand is written in TypeScript under MIT; Steel is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. stagehand has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Steel 13%. stagehand was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ai, 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
| stagehand | Steel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 7.9K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| 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 Steel if
- You want the Steel feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Steel 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 Steel
Steel The open source browser API for AI agents & apps. The best way to build live web agents and browser automation tools. Get Started · Documentation · Website · Cookbook ✨ Highlights Steel.dev is an open source browser API that makes it easy to build AI apps and agents that interact with the web. Instead of building automation infrastructure from scratch, you can focus on your AI application while Steel handles the complexity. Under the hood, it manages sessions, pages, and browser processes, allowing you to perform complex browsing tasks programmatically without any of the headaches: Full Browser Control…
read the full Steel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is stagehand or Steel more popular?
stagehand has 25,934 GitHub stars and Steel has 7,916. stagehand has the larger community by that measure.
Are stagehand and Steel free?
Both are open source. stagehand is licensed under MIT and Steel under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between stagehand and Steel?
stagehand is written in TypeScript and Steel 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, stagehand or Steel?
Choose stagehand if you want the larger community (25,934 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Steel if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.