Puppeteer
A Node library providing a high-level API to control headless Chrome or Firefox browsers over the DevTools Protocol.
There are 6 open-source alternatives to Playwright in this directory. The most popular is Puppeteer with 94.1k GitHub stars, followed by Cypress(49.6k stars). All are open source, free to use, and many can be self-hosted.
| # | Tool | Stars | Language | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Puppeteer A Node library providing a high-level API to control headless Chrome or Firefox browsers over the DevTools Protocol. | 94.1k | TypeScript | Apache License 2.0 |
| 2 | Cypress Cypress is a fast, easy, and reliable testing tool for anything that runs in a browser, built to make end-to-end testing enjoyable and efficient. | 49.6k | TypeScript | MIT License |
| 3 | Selenium Selenium is a powerful browser automation framework and ecosystem, enabling developers to automate web browsers for testing and other tasks. | 32.8k | Java | Apache License 2.0 |
| 4 | Browserless Deploy and manage headless browsers in Docker, easily run on our cloud or bring your own infrastructure. Ideal for automation and testing needs, with free options for non-commercial use. | 12.9k | TypeScript | Other |
| 5 | Puppeteer-extra Puppeteer Extra allows you to extend Puppeteer's functionality by using plugins to teach it new tricks. It's designed to make puppeteer more powerful and flexible through an easy plugin framework. | 7.3k | JavaScript | MIT License |
| 6 | AnyCrawl AnyCrawl is a Node.js and TypeScript-powered web crawler that transforms websites into data suitable for large language models (LLMs) and extracts structured SERP results from search engines like Google, Bing, and Baidu. It features native multi-threading for efficient, bulk-scale processing. | 2.5k | TypeScript | MIT License |
A Node library providing a high-level API to control headless Chrome or Firefox browsers over the DevTools Protocol.
Cypress is a fast, easy, and reliable testing tool for anything that runs in a browser, built to make end-to-end testing enjoyable and efficient.
Selenium is a powerful browser automation framework and ecosystem, enabling developers to automate web browsers for testing and other tasks.
Deploy and manage headless browsers in Docker, easily run on our cloud or bring your own infrastructure. Ideal for automation and testing needs, with free options for non-commercial use.
Puppeteer Extra allows you to extend Puppeteer's functionality by using plugins to teach it new tricks. It's designed to make puppeteer more powerful and flexible through an easy plugin framework.
AnyCrawl is a Node.js and TypeScript-powered web crawler that transforms websites into data suitable for large language models (LLMs) and extracts structured SERP results from search engines like Google, Bing, and Baidu. It features native multi-threading for efficient, bulk-scale processing.
The top three are Puppeteer(94.1k stars), Cypress(49.6k stars), Selenium(32.8k stars). All are open source and free to use.
Yes. Every tool listed here is open source and free to use in your own projects. Many can be self-hosted on your own infrastructure, which means no subscription fees and full control over your data.
Many of the alternatives listed are self-hostable. Each tool's page lists hosting details, system requirements, and licensing terms.
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