Obscura vs opensandbox
Two of the top projects in Sandboxes, side by side: who leads on each score part and who each one suits, then setup, license, activity and what each review found.
Obscura
Rust headless browser with V8 and CDP for scraping and agents
opensandbox
Sandbox API for running AI agent code, commands and browsers in isolation
Verdict
Both score 87; Obscura ranks higher on stars, 33,279 to 17,241. Of the 4 score parts we measure for both, Obscura leads on 1, opensandbox on 2 and 1 is even.
- AdoptionObscura leads by 16 points, 90 to 74: a wide gap.
- FreshnessEven at 100.
- Maintenanceopensandbox leads by 4 points, 93 to 89: close to even.
- Agent-readyopensandbox leads by 40 points, 70 to 30: a wide gap.
Pick Obscura if you are
Developers scraping the web or giving AI agents a lightweight browser
- No Chrome or Node.js needed; release archives ship as prebuilt binaries for Linux, macOS and Windows
- Connects to existing Puppeteer and Playwright scripts over CDP
Pick opensandbox if you are
Engineers needing isolated code execution for agents on their own infrastructure
- SDKs in five languages plus osb CLI and MCP server
- Same lifecycle API for local Docker and Kubernetes deployments
| What we compare | Obscura | opensandbox |
|---|---|---|
| Score parts, out of 100 | ||
| Adoption | 90, widely used | 74, popular |
| Freshness | 100, active | 100, active |
| Maintenance | 89, healthy | 93, healthy |
| Agent-ready | 30, minimal | 70, partly |
| Facts from GitHub and the README | ||
| Stars | 33.3k | 17.2k |
| License | Apache-2.0 (permissive) | Apache-2.0 (permissive) |
| Last commit | Nov 2026 | Nov 2026 |
| Last release | Oct 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| Language | Rust | Go |
| Docker | Yes | Yes |
| GPU | Not needed | Not needed |
| arm64 or Apple Silicon | Mentioned | Not stated |
Obscura
Obscura is a headless browser engine written in Rust that runs JavaScript through embedded V8 and exposes the Chrome DevTools Protocol, so Puppeteer and Playwright can connect to it. It has its own rendering layer for screenshots, screencasts and PDF export without Chromium, plus an optional stealth build with fingerprint randomization and tracker blocking. A CLI covers single-page fetch, parallel scrape, and a CDP server on port 9222.
Who it is for: Developers scraping the web or giving AI agents a lightweight browser
Strengths
- No Chrome or Node.js needed; release archives ship as prebuilt binaries for Linux, macOS and Windows
- Connects to existing Puppeteer and Playwright scripts over CDP
- README claims ~30 MB memory and ~85 ms page load versus headless Chrome
- Parallel scrape command and DOM-to-Markdown CDP method suit LLM pipelines
Weaknesses
- Independent rendering engine; long-tail CSS, some Web APIs and media playback may differ from Chromium
- Stealth transport needs a separate build or archive, compiling BoringSSL with CMake and Clang
- Blocks private-network fetches by default; local dev servers need --allow-private-network
- Speed and memory figures are the project's own; independent verification not given in README
- no GPU
- Docker
- port 9222
opensandbox
OpenSandbox provides isolated environments where agents execute code, run shell commands, manage files and drive browsers or desktops, through a single lifecycle API. It runs locally on Docker and scales to Kubernetes, with SDKs for Python, Java/Kotlin, TypeScript, C#/.NET and Go, plus an `osb` CLI and an MCP server. Egress policies, an ingress gateway and a credential vault control network access.
Who it is for: Engineers needing isolated code execution for agents on their own infrastructure
Strengths
- SDKs in five languages plus osb CLI and MCP server
- Same lifecycle API for local Docker and Kubernetes deployments
- Per-sandbox egress policies and a credential vault keep real secrets out of workloads
- Firecracker runtime with pause/resume; reported 64 ms P50 creation time
Weaknesses
- Docker required for local use; Kubernetes setup needed for the fast runtime
- No hosted demo or playground listed in the README
- Firecracker and pause/resume features documented only for the Kubernetes fast runtime
- Server needs separate install and TOML configuration before first use
- no GPU
- Needs Docker, Python 3.10+, Kubernetes (optional, for cluster deployment)
More in Sandboxes
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