Huginn vs Skyvern
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted automation & workflows options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Huginn
Agents that monitor and act on your behalf
VS
Skyvern
Automate browser workflows with LLMs and computer vision
| Feature | Huginn | Skyvern |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 100 · Excellent | 96 · Excellent |
| Category | Automation & Workflows | Automation & Workflows |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Ruby | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 49,985 | ★ 23,058 |
| First released | 2013 | 2024 |
| Replaces | IFTTT, Zapier | UiPath, Zapier |
What are Huginn and Skyvern?
Huginn
Huginn is a system for building agents that watch the web and act on your behalf, like an open-source IFTTT. It targets technical users automating monitoring and notifications. It is deployed via Docker.
- Agents that watch and act
- Scrape, filter and transform data
- Chain agents into pipelines
- Email and webhook actions
Skyvern
Skyvern automates browser-based workflows by combining large language models with computer vision, allowing it to operate on websites it has never seen before. It runs as a self-hosted service with an API.
- LLM-driven browser automation
- Works on unseen sites
- Vision-based interaction
- Workflow API
Huginn vs Skyvern: key differences
Huginn is written in Ruby, while Skyvern is built with Python. Licensing differs — MIT for Huginn versus AGPL-3.0 for Skyvern. Huginn is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for Skyvern. Huginn is the more established project (first released 2013), while Skyvern arrived in 2024. Huginn has the considerably larger community, at 49,985 GitHub stars versus 23,058.
Why pick each one
Choose Huginn if…
- Very flexible automation
- Good for web monitoring
- No vendor lock-in
Watch out for
- Configuration is technical
- UI feels dated
Choose Skyvern if…
- Handles unseen websites
- Vision-based automation
- API-first design
Watch out for
- LLM costs add up
- Postgres required
Frequently asked questions
Is Huginn or Skyvern better?
Neither is universally better. Huginn has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Huginn and Skyvern free and open-source?
Yes. Huginn is licensed under MIT and Skyvern under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Huginn and Skyvern with Docker?
Huginn: yes. Skyvern: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Huginn or Skyvern?
Huginn has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 4,096 MB for Skyvern. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.