head to head · open source
Steel vs ketch
Steel has 7,916 GitHub stars, 1,004 forks, 68 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ketch has 740 stars, 44 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Steel leads on adoption by 970% (7,916 vs 740 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%. Steel 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 | ★ 7.9K | ★ 740 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 44 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Steel if
- You weight community size — 7.9K 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 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 →
About ketch
ketch A stateless CLI for web search, code search, library docs, and scraping — one binary, no daemon, no API server to run. Why ketch Most research tooling for agents means wiring up several provider SDKs, each with its own auth and response shape. ketch collapses that into one binary with three research surfaces: ketch search — web search, no API key required (Brave, DuckDuckGo, SearXNG, Exa, Firecrawl, Keenable, Tavily, Parallel, SerpBase, Serply, or You.com) ketch code — grep real OSS source across public repos (Grep, Sourcegraph, or GitHub Code Search) ketch docs — curated, version aware library…
read the full ketch overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Steel or ketch more popular?
Steel has 7,916 GitHub stars and ketch has 740. 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 (7,916 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose ketch if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.