head to head · open source
webtorrent vs obscura
webtorrent has 31,465 GitHub stars, 2,852 forks, 83 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. obscura has 30,141 stars, 2,279 forks, 134 open issues and last shipped yesterday. webtorrent leads on adoption by 4% (31,465 vs 30,141 stars). webtorrent is written in JavaScript under MIT; obscura is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. webtorrent has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, obscura 8%. obscura was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (browser), 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
| webtorrent | obscura | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 30K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 2.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick webtorrent if
- You weight community size — 31K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick obscura if
- You want the obscura feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and obscura fits your workflow better
About webtorrent
WebTorrent The streaming torrent client. For node.js and the web. Sponsored by WebTorrent is a streaming torrent client for node.js and the browser . YEP, THAT'S RIGHT. THE BROWSER. It's written completely in JavaScript – the language of the web – so the same code works in both runtimes. In node.js, this module is a simple torrent client, using TCP and UDP to talk to other torrent clients. In the browser, WebTorrent uses WebRTC (data channels) for peer to peer transport. It can be used without browser plugins, extensions, or installations. It's Just JavaScript™. Note: WebTorrent does not support UDP/TCP peers in…
read the full webtorrent overview →
About obscura
Obscura The open source headless browser for AI agents and web scraping. Lightweight, stealthy, and built in Rust. Native rendering is here. No Chromium required. 🎉 Capture screenshots, screencast live pages, and export PDFs directly with Obscura. Obscura is a headless browser engine written in Rust, built for web scraping and AI agent automation. It runs real JavaScript via V8, supports the Chrome DevTools Protocol, and acts as a drop in replacement for headless Chrome with Puppeteer and Playwright. Why Obscura over headless Chrome? Obscura inspired Cloudflare Kitesurf’s first prototype Cloudflare began by…
read the full obscura overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is webtorrent or obscura more popular?
webtorrent has 31,465 GitHub stars and obscura has 30,141. webtorrent has the larger community by that measure.
Are webtorrent and obscura free?
Both are open source. webtorrent is licensed under MIT and obscura under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between webtorrent and obscura?
webtorrent is written in JavaScript and obscura in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, webtorrent or obscura?
Choose webtorrent if you want the larger community (31,465 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose obscura if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.