browser-use vs dots
browser-use is much bigger: 119.6k stars against 32.3k. Over the days we have tracked them browser-use moved +11.2% and dots +3534.3%, so dots is growing faster right now.
browser-use leads on customization and privacy and model freedom. dots does not take any axis by a clear margin.
Stars and commit dates come from our own daily tracking. The six axes are read off each project's documentation by our review pipeline, so they describe what a project says about itself, not what we measured in its code.
Where they stand today
An open-source browser agent that runs locally and is extensible with custom tools and provider‑prefixed models, enabling reproducible, privacy-friendly web automation.
- Stars
- 119.6k
- Tracked growth
- +11.2%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 7h ago
- Language
- Python
- License
- MIT
- Cost to run
- Your LLM API key (or run free local models).
Provides a real, patched Firefox engine that presents a consistent, human-like fingerprint (no WebDriver flags) so the agent interacts with sites without obvious automation traces.
- Stars
- 32.3k
- Tracked growth
- +3534.3%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 5d ago
- Language
- TypeScript
- License
- MIT
- Cost to run
- Your OpenRouter API key
Six axes, head to head
Each axis runs 0 to 5. The label under a score is what that project's own docs claim, not a category average.
| Axis | browser-use | dots |
|---|---|---|
Context depth How much of your codebase it sees before it answers: the open diff, the diff plus related files, or the whole repository. | ●●●●● Diff only | ●●●●● Single page only |
Noise control How it keeps output volume down — severity thresholds, deduplication, incremental runs over new commits only. | ●●●●● None mentioned | ●●●●● None mentioned |
Customization How far it bends to your team: custom rules, prompts, style guides, per-path config. | ●●●●● Custom tools & prompts | ●●●●● CLI flags & options |
Privacy Whether your code stays on your own infrastructure: fully local, self-hostable, or cloud API only. | ●●●●● Fully local capable | ●●●●● Cloud via OpenRouter |
Model freedom Whether you can point it at any provider, or it is wired to one. | ●●●●● Bring-your-own / local | ●●●●● OpenRouter only |
Setup ease What it takes to get a first useful run out of it. | ●●●●● API key + install | ●●●●● Install + API key |
Which one to pick
Pick browser-use if…
Open-source & flexible — pick any LLM (including local models), add custom tools, and run browser automation on your machine.
- Customization: Custom tools & prompts (5/5 against 3/5)
- Privacy: Fully local capable (5/5 against 3/5)
- Model freedom: Bring-your-own / local (5/5 against 1/5)
Pick dots if…
Anti-detection browser — pick dots when you need a local agent that emulates a consistent human identity (screen, fonts, timezone, pointer events) and preserves profiles while using models via OpenRouter.
What people want from each one
browser-use/browser-use
Hacker News: Launch HN: Browser Use (YC W25) – open-source web agents drew 259 points and 100 comments.
Questions people ask
Is browser-use better than dots?
browser-use leads on customization and privacy and model freedom. dots does not take any axis by a clear margin. browser-use is worth picking when open-source & flexible — pick any LLM (including local models), add custom tools, and run browser automation on your machine.
Which of browser-use and dots keeps my code private?
browser-use: Fully local capable (5/5). dots: Cloud via OpenRouter (3/5).
What does each one cost to run?
browser-use: Your LLM API key (or run free local models).. dots: Your OpenRouter API key.
Full profiles: browser-use/browser-use and feder-cr/dots. Everything else in Browser agents.