head to head · open source
Crawl4AI vs Steel
Crawl4AI has 86,861 GitHub stars, 9,046 forks, 188 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Steel has 7,916 stars, 1,004 forks, 68 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Crawl4AI leads on adoption by 997% (86,861 vs 7,916 stars). Crawl4AI is written in Python under Apache-2.0; Steel is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Crawl4AI has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Steel 13%. Steel 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, llm), 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
| Crawl4AI | Steel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 87K | ★ 7.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.0K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Crawl4AI if
- You weight community size — 87K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- 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 Crawl4AI
🚀🤖 Crawl4AI: Open source LLM Friendly Web Crawler & Scraper. 🚀 Crawl4AI Cloud API — Closed Beta (Launching Soon) Reliable, large scale web extraction, now built to be drastically more cost effective than any of the existing solutions. 👉 Apply here for early access We’ll be onboarding in phases and working closely with early users. Limited slots. Crawl4AI turns the web into clean, LLM ready Markdown for RAG, agents, and data pipelines. Fast, controllable, battle tested by a 50k+ star community. ✨ Check out latest update v0.9.3 ✨ New in v0.9.3 : Security release. Closes five coordinated disclosure advisories…
read the full Crawl4AI 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 Crawl4AI or Steel more popular?
Crawl4AI has 86,861 GitHub stars and Steel has 7,916. Crawl4AI has the larger community by that measure.
Are Crawl4AI and Steel free?
Both are open source. Crawl4AI is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Steel under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Crawl4AI and Steel?
Crawl4AI is written in Python 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, Crawl4AI or Steel?
Choose Crawl4AI if you want the larger community (86,861 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Steel if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.