LightpandavsObscura
Two self-hosted Headless Chrome alternatives, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| Lightpanda | Obscura | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 79/100 | 75/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 11 in Browser Automation | #3 of 16 in Web Scraping |
| GitHub stars | 37 089 | 29 520 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +288 | +436 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 11 | 10 |
| Latest release | 1.0.2 · 22 Oct 2026 | v0.2.5 · 17 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Easy | Easy |
| Official Docker image | Yes | Yes |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | Zig | Rust |
Which one should you pick?
Lightpanda scores 79/100 against 75/100 for Obscura, so it is the safer default.
Lightpanda ships more often: 11 stable releases in the past year, against 10 for Obscura.
Lightpanda details →Obscura details → All Headless Chrome alternatives →