head to head · open source
Steel vs ketch
Steel has 7,668 GitHub stars, 982 forks, 68 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. ketch has 596 stars, 36 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Steel leads on adoption by 1,187% (7,668 vs 596 stars). Steel is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; ketch is written in Go under MIT. Steel has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, ketch 6%. ketch was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai-agents), 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
| Steel | ketch | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.7K | ★ 596 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 982 | ⑂ 36 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Steel if
- You weight community size — 7.7K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ketch if
- You want the ketch feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and ketch fits your workflow better
About Steel
Steel is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed browser API written in TypeScript that gives AI agents and applications cloud browser sessions, so teams can automate the web without building browser infrastructure from scratch.
read the full Steel overview →
About ketch
ketch is a stateless command line tool that performs web search, code search, library documentation lookup, and page scraping from one Go binary, built for both people working in a terminal and the AI agents they build.
read the full ketch overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Steel or ketch more popular?
Steel has 7,668 GitHub stars and ketch has 596. Steel has the larger community by that measure.
Are Steel and ketch free?
Both are open source. Steel is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ketch under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Steel and ketch?
Steel is written in TypeScript and ketch 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, Steel or ketch?
Choose Steel if you want the larger community (7,668 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose ketch if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.