A web browser without a graphical user interface, controlled programmatically. Used for automation, testing, and other purposes.
These browser engines fully render web pages or run JavaScript in a virtual DOM
Name
About
Supported Languages
License
Chromium Embedded Framework CEF is a open source project based on the Google Chromium project.
JavaScript
BSD
Erik Headless browser on top of Kanna and WebKit.
Swift
MIT
jBrowserDriver A Selenium-compatible headless browser which is written in pure Java. WebKit-based. Works with any of the Selenium Server bindings.
Java
Apache License v2.0
PhantomJS [Unmaintained] PhantomJS is a headless WebKit scriptable with a JavaScript API. It has fast and native support for various web standards: DOM handling, CSS selector, JSON, Canvas, and SVG.JavaScript, Python, Ruby, Java, C#, Haskell, Objective-C, Perl, PHP, R(via Selenium )
BSD 3-Clause
Splash Splash is a javascript rendering service with an HTTP API. It's a lightweight browser with an HTTP API, implemented in Python using Twisted and QT.
Any
BSD 3-Clause
Surf Surf is an open source project that implements a virtual web browser that can be controlled programatically
Go
MIT
These libraries can control multiple browser engines (typically using Selenium)
Name
About
Supported Languages
License
CasperJS [Unmaintained] CasperJS is an open source navigation scripting & testing utility written in Javascript for the PhantomJS WebKit headless browser and SlimerJS (Gecko).JavaScript
MIT
Geb Geb is a Groovy interface to WebDriver.
Groovy
Apache
Playwright Playwright is a Node library to automate the Chromium, WebKit and Firefox browsers with a single API
TypeScript
Apache
playwright-dotnet Playwright for .NET is a library to automate Chromium, Firefox and WebKit browsers with a single API.
.NET
MIT
playwright-python Playwright for Python is a library to automate Chromium, Firefox and WebKit browsers with a single API.
Python
Apache
playwright-java Playwright for Java is a library to automate Chromium, Firefox and WebKit browsers with a single API.
Java
Apache
playwright-go Playwright for Go is a library to automate Chromium, Firefox and WebKit browsers with a single API.
Go
MIT
Selenium Selenium is a suite of tools to automate web browsers across many platforms.
JavaScript, Python, Ruby, Java, C#, Haskell, Objective-C, Perl, PHP, R
Apache
Splinter Splinter is an open source tool for testing web applications using Python. It lets you automate browser actions, such as visiting URLs and interacting with their items.
Python
-
SST SST (selenium-simple-test) is a web test framework that uses Python to generate functional browser-based tests.
Python
-
Watir The most elegant way to use Selenium WebDriver with Ruby.
Ruby
MIT
These libraries control PhantomJS
Name
About
Supported Languages
License
Ghostbuster Automated browser testing via phantom.js, with all of the pain taken out! That means you get a real browser, with a real DOM, and can do real testing!
JavaScript
Not specified
jedi-crawler Lightsabing Node/PhantomJS crawler; scrape dynamic content : without the hassle
JavaScript
Not specified
Lotte Lotte is a headless, automated testing framework built on top of PhantomJS and inspired by Ghostbuster.
JavaScript
MIT
phantompy Phantompy is a headless WebKit engine with powerful pythonic api build on top of Qt5 Webkit
Python
LGPL-2.1
X-RAY Supports strings, arrays, arrays of objects, nested object structures, selector API, pagination, crawler, concurrency, throttles, delays, timeouts, and pluggable drivers (PhantomJS, HTTP)
JavaScript
MIT
Horseman Promise based Node.js module for PhantomJS. Features chainable API, understandable control-flow, support for multiple tabs, and built-in jQuery.
JavaScript
MIT
These libraries control Chromium
Name
About
Supported Languages
License
Awesomium Chromium-based headless browser engine
C++, .NET
Free/Commercial
Headless Chromium Chromium feature activated with the --headlesss flag, currently availible in the nightly build of Chromium, not yet released
C++
Opensource
Puppeteer Headless Chrome Node API from the Chrome DevTools team
JavaScript
Apache
PuppeteerSharp PuppeteerSharp is a .NET port of the official Headless Chrome Node.JS Puppeteer API
.NET
MIT
chrome-remote-interface Chrome Debugging Protocol interface for Node.js
JavaScript
MIT
Chromy Features chainable API, mobile emulation, fundamental API such as javascript evaluation.
JavaScript
MIT
chromedp A faster, simpler way to drive browsers (Chrome, Edge, Safari, Android, etc) without external dependencies (ie, Selenium, PhantomJS, etc) using the Chrome Debugging Protocol.
Go
MIT
Chromeless Chrome automation made simple. Runs locally or headless on AWS Lambda.
JavaScript
MIT
Chrome PHP PHP API to drive Chromium or Google Chrome via the Chrome Devtools Protocole.
PHP
Fair
Wendigo Test-oriented browser automation library using Puppeteer.
JavaScript
GPL-3.0
cdp4j A web-automation library for Java. It can be used for automating the use of web pages and for testing web pages. It use Google Chrome DevTools Protocol to automate Chrome/Chromium based browsers.
Java
cdp4j Commercial License
Pyppeteer Python port of puppeteer JavaScript (headless) chrome/chromium browser automation library
Python
MIT
Headless Chrome A high-level API to control headless Chrome or Chromium over the DevTools Protocol.
Rust
None
These drivers control an in-process instance of Webkit
Name
About
Supported Languages
License
Browserjet Runs a custom build of webkit, controlled by node.js interface.
JavaScript
Not specified
ghost.py ghost.py is a webkit web client written in python.
Python
MIT
headless_browser Headless browser based on WebKit written in C++.
C++
Not Specified
Jabba-Webkit Jabba's headless webkit browser for scraping AJAX-powered webpages.
Python
Not specified
Jasmine-Headless-Webkit jasmine-headless-webkit uses the QtWebKit widget to run your specs without needing to render a pixel.
Python, JavaScript, Ruby
Free
Python-Webkit Python-Webkit is a python extension to Webkit to add full, complete access to Webkit's DOM
Python
GNU
Spynner Programmatic web browsing module with AJAX support for Python
Python
Not specified
Webloop Scriptable, headless WebKit with a Go API.
Go
BSD 3-Clause
wkhtmltopdf wkhtmltox wkhtmltoimageCommand line tool rendering HTML into PDF and other image formats.
shell, C
LGPLv3
WKZombie Functional headless browser (with JSON support) for iOS using WebKit and hpple/libxml2.
Swift
MIT
These libraries control lesser known browsers or OS-provided web libraries
Name
About
Supported Languages
License
Cypress Cypress supports end-to-end, integration and unit tests and makes debugging tests simple. Default engine is headless Electron.
JavaScript
MIT
Nightmare Nightmare is a high-level browser automation library built as an easier alternative to PhantomJS. It runs on the Electron engine.
JavaScript
MIT
grope A RubyCocoa interface to the macOS WebKit Framework
RubyCocoa
MIT
SlimerJS SlimerJS is similar to PhantomJs, except that it runs Gecko, the browser engine of Mozilla Firefox, instead of Webkit (And it is not yet truly headless).
JavaScript
Mozilla 2.0
SpecterJS A scriptable headless Internet Explorer port of PhantomJS.
JavaScript
MIT
trifleJS A headless Internet Explorer browser using the .NET WebBrowser Class with a Javascript API running on the V8 engine.
JavaScript
MIT
These libraries are typically naive or HTML-only browsers
Name
About
Supported Languages
License
AngleSharp .Net Http Parsing Library
.NET
MIT
Guillotine A .NET headless browser, written in C#
.NET
LGPL-3.0
benv Stub a browser environment in node.js and headlessly test your client-side code.
JavaScript
MIT
browser.rb Headless Ruby browser on top of Nokogiri and TheRubyRacer
Ruby
Not specified
BrowserKit BrowserKit simulates the behavior of a web browser.
PHP
MIT
DamonJS Bot navigating urls and doing tasks.
JavaScript
Apache
Headless Headless browser support for fast web acceptance testing in .Net
.NET
MIT
HeadlessBrowser A very miniature headless browser, for testing the DOM on Node.js
JavaScript
Not specified
HtmlUnit HtmlUnit is a "GUI-Less browser for Java programs".
Java
Apache
Jaunt Java Web Scraping & Automation API
Java
Apache (monthly edition)
Jauntium Free Java library that allows you to easily automate Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, IE, and other modern web browers.
Java
Apache
JSDom A JavaScript implementation of the WHATWG DOM and HTML standards, for use with Node.js.
JavaScript
MIT
MechanicalSoup A Python library for automating interaction with websites.
Python
MIT
mechanize Stateful programmatic web browsing.
Python
BSD 3-Clause, ZPL 2.1
node-as-browser Create a browser-like environment within Node.js
JavaScript
MIT
RoboBrowser A simple, Pythonic library for browsing the web without a standalone web browser.
Python
BSD 3-Clause
SimpleBrowser A flexible and intuitive web browser engine designed for automation tasks. Built on the .Net 4 framework.
.NET
BSD 3-Clause
stanislaw Naive, mechanize-like HTML parser/form driver.
Python
Not specified
twill Twill is a simple language that interacts with basic HTML pages (no JavaScript support).
Python
MIT
WeasyPrint WeasyPrint is a visual rendering engine for HTML and CSS that can export to PDF. It aims to support web standards for printing.
Python
BSD 3-Clause
WWW::Mechanize Headless browser for Perl with many plugins and extensions, notably Test::WWW:Mechanize for testing
Perl
Perl 5
X-RAY Supports strings, arrays, arrays of objects, nested object structures, selector API, pagination, crawler, concurrency, throttles, delays, timeouts, and pluggable drivers (PhantomJS, HTTP)
JavaScript
MIT
Xidel (Internet Tools) An XQuery-based cli web scraper for static X/HTML pages and JSON-APIs.
FreePascal, XQuery
GPL-2
Zombie.js Zombie.js is a lightweight framework for testing client-side JavaScript code in a simulated environment. No browser required.
JavaScript
MIT
Name
About
Supported Languages
License
DalekJS [unmaintained and recommend TestCafΓ©] Automated cross browser testing with JavaScript.
JavaScript
MIT
TestCafΓ© Automated browser testing for the modern web development stack.
JavaScript
MIT
Sahi Sahi is a cross-browser automation/testing tool with the facility to record and playback scripts.
JavaScript, Java, Ruby, PHP
Apache / Commercial
WatiN Web Application Testing In .Net
.NET
Apache 2.0
Name
About
Supported Languages
License
browser-launcher Detect and launch browser versions, headlessly or otherwise
JavaScript
MIT
Headless Recorder Chrome extension that records your browser interactions and generates a Playwright or Puppeteer script
JavaScript
MIT
